The Girl from Palakol

I am an Indian girl born in a place called Palakol, Andhra Pradesh. My Parents had good devotion towards God Almighty. My father used to worship all incarnations of God mainly Lord Shiva, Lord Shri Rama, Lord Hanumana and Shri Shridi Sainatha. My mother is a good devotee of Shri Shridi Sainatha. He is a sadhguru who is an incarnation of Shri AdiGuru Dattatraya. Usually Parents ideas and their deeds influence children alot. In that way I also started worshipping Shri sainatha from my 5th class onwards i.e from the age of 9 years. I used to pray to Him in all my problems, in all my fears and also in my joy. I used to pray to Him every minute in my heart. But in my personality, I used to be afraid for everything i.e even talking with others, used to feel insecure, having so many tensions for doing any work. I couldn't share anything with any one like a closed heart fellow. One side I had very good bakthi towards God Almighty and other side I had all these qualities in me. Because of this possessed nature I used to hurt some of my friends even in my bachelor's degree. It means from 9 years to the age of 18 years, there is no change in my behaviour at all. But I still had same bakthi towards Shri Sainatha. One day one of my classmate who was practising this Yoga told about this meditation to my roommate. On that day she went and took self-realization, even she at that time couldn't understand what it is exactly. She and me used to do all things together all the time. So next day she took me to meditation center. There I saw a couple of people, who were practising this Yoga for a few years, giving self-realization to new people infront of Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi's photograph. Seeing all this I thought inside, I shouldn't pray to any other God expect Shri Saibaba, I couldn't leave Him.

This Yoga starts by giving self-realization to us. Self-realization means awakening the kundalini, which is the purest form of feminine Divine energy, which resides at sacrumbone in all the humanbeings. In the previous days all the saints used to do great tapsya(called meditation) for so many years for getting this self-realization. But Shri Mataji made this experience possible for everyone through the technique of SahajaYoga. Shri Mataji made it very simple in such a way that within minutes we will get this self-realization by using Her Photograph or in Presence of Her. When Kundalini raises we feel cool breeze called vibrations on top of our head and on our palms.

So those people tried alot to help me in getting these vibrations. But I was with only one thought inside strongly that I shouldn't worship any other God. With that thought I didn't practise this Yoga until six months after I got self-realization. After six months one fine day me and my roommate went to picnic with all my classmates near to a sea shore. On that day I hurt again my roommate without understanding other's feelings, without understanding how much love she is giving to me. I was like that all the time in my own world. So she didn't talk to me. It made me worried alot. When we were returning from the picnic since my roommate was not talking to me I went sadly and sat near other friend. I think time came for me at that time to realiaze completely about Sahaja Yoga. I sat unknowingly near the friend, who was practising this yoga. He was talking something and suddenly he started telling about this meditation. I asked him I wanted to learn this meditation with a thought that I should become good. My roommate was leaving to her place next day I thought inside before she comes back I should learn this meditation and I should become good before she comes back.
So my classmate took me this meditaion center after a couple of days. Before he took me to this center, I was reading Shri Sainatha life story and thinking even I was doing all these things why is my behavior was not changing? Why I still worried for all the small things. Why couldn't I give happiness to others???????? So many questions started.

When he took me to meditation center this time I felt as if Shri Sainatha showed me this path to free from all my worries. I started practising this Yoga twice a day for 15 to 20 mins. daily even I didn't understand what it is completely at that time. After 10 or 15 days I started feeling this cool breeze. I felt some curing was going in my subtle body. My heart was becoming light and joyful. I felt I was relived from all my tensions and fears. I felt my health also becoming very good, I observed that I was not taking any medicine also. I realized Who Shri Mataji is. Then I didn't felt that I left Shri Sainatha.
This Kundalini energy rises from the sacrum bone through the spinal column. As a result, the energy centers or chakras become energized or nourished. With the kundalini awakening I realized all the deities inside us, I realized God within us. I realized that unless we find God within us we will not get real happiness. When Kundalini passes through all these chakras, it connects us to All Pervading Power. So Sahaja Yoga means the spontaneous connection or union with the self or the spirit. This Kundalini has Motherly nature. It always protects us from all the problems and looks after us every min and every sec. In that way I was saved from so many accidents. I felt completely secured. When Kundalini cleanses all the chakras we get qualities of Divine i.e Loving nature, Forgiving nature and sharing nature. I found tremendous change in my behavior. I realized until we find God within ourselves our behaviour will not change. Now I feel God's Motherly love & compassion all the time taking care of me, protecting me and giving me real happiness all the time.

After my roommate came back from her home She also started practising this yoga and all other roommates also got realized. My parents also realized God within themselves. And all of our roommates’ families started practising Sahaja Yoga. All of our neighbors also got realized. From five years onwards we have been practicing this mediation every day and enjoying ourselves. Now thousands of people are practicing this Yoga all over the World. There is no discrimination on religion or color to practice this meditation. We worship all the incarnations of God Almighty within ourselves. Thanks alot for Shri Mataji for giving this beautiful Yoga in this horrible time of kaliyuga.
This Self-Realization is open to everyone.

Miraculous Escape: Blessings of Sahaja Yoga Meditation

In a family who practices Sahaja Yoga in Indore, they are four members, parents, a son and a daughter. The parents were worried about their daughter's marriage, as she was not ready to get married for next 2-3 years. The parents prayed to Shri Mataji and sent the bio-data of the daughter without the prior knowledge of her, to the guy they were looking for. As the boy was looking for an MBBS girl and their daughter was B.Com., they were still worried.

Somehow due to Sahaja Yoga the things changed miraculously. The guy not only called them for a visit but also agreed to get married. The daughter checked the vibrations of the guy, and as he was having good vibrations, she too replied in positive. Moreover he started practicing Sahaja Yoga from the day of their engagement. The parents were happy people. But the story doesn't end here; in fact it begins from here. The to be bridegroom is working in Merchant Navy. He was on the leave when he got engaged. He had to join the ship in the Houston so he left from India on 9th of September 2001. On 11th of the same month he had to catch a flight from Zurich to Houston. But somehow he got delayed, missed the first three flights and was waiting for the fourth one. Then only he came to know that one of the three flights got hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon or one of the buildings of World Trade Center, the most dreadful event of the millenium. The authorities diverted the fourth flight to Montreal, Canada.

This is how Shri Mataji saves her children.

Similar thing happened to a lady in Indore. She was going to attend a function in Mysore. She had to catch a train from Khandwa so she left for Khandwa by bus. On their way to Khandwa the bus driver couldn't keep control of the steering and bus fell down from a bridge in the dried river. The height of the bridge was 25 feet. The bus went upside down, but miraculously the lady didn't even get a scratch, while other passengers were hurt mildly, thanks to Shri Mataji. Even the presence of a Sahaja yogi can make the difference. Her husband was with her, but he was not a Sahaja Yogi. He got a mild crack in the shoulder so he needed some treatment because of the pain. As the bus got delayed due to accident, and they had to catch the train, they were unable to go for the treatment in Khandwa. Luckily in the same compartment there was a doctor travelling with his aid box and he treated him there. After the incident the husband also joined Sahaja yoga and both are living happily. These are the few miracles that happen everyday to the Sahaja yogis all over the world, but this is all the byproduct of Sahaja Yoga. The main aim of joining Sahaja Yoga is to get self-realization and to attain peace of mind. After getting self-realization, one enters into the Kingdom of God, where He takes care of all his children.

Feeling the Cool Breeze: Experience of People of Different Faiths

[Compiled by Oleg Florow on the now defunct Geocities web]

[Oleg:]If one looks at the religions of the world, they fall into two main categories. The first group believe that to worship, or pay respects to any holy image is wrong, while the second use images in their doctrine. Perhaps at the end of the day there is no conflict. If the image is created by, or is a true likeness of, someone who has strong vibrations, then to put oneself in a situation where one absorbs those healing vibrations can only be for the good. But if someone bows down before an image which is made by someone who themselves emitted heat (problems) then no wonder Moses spoke so strongly against 'graven images'! But the solution is to be able to have a heightened awareness so as to be able to distinguish between what is 'holy' and what is not. Once a person has settled into Sahaja Yoga they can generally do this.

'Shri Mataji arranged a weekend at her house at Hurst Green, Sussex, England in 1976. In her house there was a big drawing room downstairs with beautiful Indian rugs. There were large statues of Indian deities, and one of them was a beautiful wooden Shri Ganesha.

One of the Sahaja Yogis who had been there before took me upstairs and showed it to me.
"This statue has such cool vibrations," he said.
"Hang on," I replied. Being from a Muslim background, I thought, 'What is he talking about?'

Although I had received my realization, and could feel the cool vibrations, because of my Islamic conditioning I was a bit sceptical that this statue would emit them. So I tried feeling the vibrations, while stepping back, and it did have vibrations, in that there was a cool breeze coming from it.
One of the things that struck me also in the house of Shri Mataji, was that it felt as if every statue in the house was vibrating with power. Everywhere you went, you felt a kind of silent, peaceful, but extremely powerful environment, which is very difficult to describe, except to say that you knew something very powerful was working very deep inside you and working it out. You were in the middle of this and you felt you were in a different universe altogether. (D.M.)

This story shows that the experience of the cool breeze of the Spirit goes far beyond our cultural conditioning. The writer is from a Moslem background, a citizen of the European Community, a successful banker in early middle age and married with children.



My parents were very, very religious Jews. The first weekend after I got my realization, I went up to see them at our home in a town in the Midlands of England. I was still working the whole thing out myself, but I gave my mother realization and she felt the vibrations as a cool breeze.

She went to the synagogue the next Saturday, as she always did. At a certain point in the service the scrolls of the law would be taken out. They are kept in a beautifully decorated altar, which we call the Ark, and this is a replica of the place where the ten commandments were kept after they were given by Moses on Mount Sinai. The scrolls are all parchment and beautifully written and decorated, by hand. In Judaism we have traditions which are in many ways parallel to those of Hinduism.

As soon as they opened the Ark, my mother said she couldn't believe it. She felt a cool breeze pouring out of the Ark. The rest of the people in the synagogue had no idea of this. As soon as the Sabbath was finished and she could use the phone, she phoned me and said:
"The most extraordinary thing happened to me today. I went to the synagogue, and when they opened the Ark, I felt the same cool breeze pouring out of it as I felt when you gave me realization. Now I know that this is right."

Sadly she died in 1987. Before that, although she was always a firm follower of Judaism, she came to accept Christ and understood about Shri Mataji and the great gift she has brought to the world. Shri Mataji came to stay in our house and my father, a deeply learned and religious Jew, also had profound respect for and understanding of Shri Mataji. (R.H.)

[Ed: Oleg] Here we see how all the problems between the religions could be resolved if their followers could understand them as being different flowers of the same tree of universal wisdom. What is vital is that we can all evolve to gain our Self Realization, so we can actually experience the truths which the great personalities of the past have come on earth to reveal to us The writer, like his family, is learned in the Torah and Caballah, and sees Sahaja Yoga as a fulfillment of this wisdom.

So what is this cool breeze?

It is time for an explanation! Some of this might be quite a lot to digest and accept initially, but read on, and you too might feel it.

In this first personal report, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi is conducting an introductory programme of Sahaja Yoga, to give Self Realization. The newcomers are told they have this experience when they feel a cool breeze coming from their own bodies. Sahaja Yoga is extremely simple. The first stage is to get Self Realization.

In many scriptures this experience is reported as being accompanied by a wind, or coolness, for example the wind of the Holy spirit in the Christian bible, or the 'sali lam' or cool wind which accompanies the awakening of Kundalini, necessary to attain 'moksha', or realisation of the self as spirit, in the Hindu tradition. It is interesting that in many languages, the word for Holy Spirit, or Adi Shakti as it is in Sanskrit, is a feminine noun. Christ used an Aramaic word which was feminine, and in Islam, the word is feminine: 'ruh'. In at least two African languages, Zulu and Xhosa, the word for Holy Spirit and cool wind are the same: imoyo.

'My family and I live in Sydney, Australia. I was never what is termed a seeker. My brother was always looking for something, and said he would tell us once he found it. One memorable day, in the early 1980's, I was seated in front of the television watching a football game, when my brother came home and said the most incredible thing had happened.

He had just met an Indian lady called Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi and had received his Self Realization. He told me he had spent the day with her and a group of people and he had felt an incredible cool wind coming from her body, when he put his hands in her direction.' (C. K.)

In this account, a young man reports feeling this coolness coming from Shri Mataji herself. Shri Mataji is an extremely powerful spiritual personality, and as she has said on many occasions, she has come on this earth to give en masse Self Realization to all those who are sincerely seeking inner fulfillment. She explains that this coolness is a very subtle form of vibrations, and it is felt as a cool wind or breeze. As she is the one who has opened the way to this en masse awakening for all the rest of us, it is hardly surprising that even her body radiates this coolness very powerfully.

'I got my Self Realization in August 1979. The first strong experience was when Shri Mataji invited some of us to her flat in London a little later. Before getting my realization, I had been experimenting with different forms of consciousness, and seeking for something, but unfortunately it had caused me to have all these voices going on in my head all the time in those days.

Shri Mataji got me to put my left hand towards her and the right hand towards a candle flame. After some minutes all the voices in my head stopped and a cool breeze just came blowing into my forehead. It was a lot easier to be experience inner peace and inner stillness after that.

Some months later, a woman and her brother brought a sixteen year old boy who had cancer to Shri Mataji's house in Brompton Square, London. I was doing some decorative work, maybe painting or wallpapering, in the same room where Shri Mataji was curing this boy.

He was so weak, he couldn't even sit up. She had him lying down. She called me over to help as well.

"What do you feel?" She said. I felt incredible heat coming from him. Shri Mataji gave him healing vibrations on his Nabhi chakra, at the level of his waist. I was feeling it all and, maybe after twenty minutes or so, it was just blowing cool. I saw and felt Shri Mataji cure this boy of cancer. What a tremendous experience. After being almost carried in, he walked out, full of energy.' (J.W.)

This young man had some sort of imbalance, and when he is cured he feels this same coolness. He gives a short account of how he is healed, which anyone who practises Sahaja Yoga quickly learns about. The same man is involved in helping to cure someone, and whereas when the boy is clearly ill he feels heat coming from him, once he is better he feels coolness radiating from his body. In any system heat indicates friction and often a problem. Once a person has Self Realisation he or she can become sensitive to this subtle heat or coolness, and can also learn how to direct these subtle vibrations to help heal people of diseases.

'I was at a public meeting in about 1978, in London. I had been coming to Sahaja Yoga for a few months and a Sahaja Yogi gave me vibrations, particularly on my Agnya, (forehead). All of a sudden, I began to feel a tremendous cool breeze flowing.

In those days, Shri Mataji used to come by and talk to each one of us.
"Are you feeling the cool breeze?" She asked.
"Yes," I replied.

Then she told me to put one hand towards her and one hand towards a long-haired person who was next to me. The hand towards Shri Mataji felt this fantastic cool breeze, whereas the one towards this guy felt tremendous heat. As I was doing that, this man, a complete stranger, turned around to me and for no apparent reason said something like he didn't like me at all. It was the first time I had felt the difference between the cool and the heat.' (B.K.)


This writer, an aerospace engineer from Singapore and now settled in America, also shows how the cool breeze indicates positivity whereas heat indicates some problem.


'My mother went to an introductory programme of Sahaja Yoga and received her Self Realisation. She came home with a photo she had been given of Shri Mataji, the lady who started Sahaja Yoga.

My mother showed me the photo and two extraordinary things happened. Firstly, for no apparent reason, I smelled a very strong and beautiful aroma of roses, and then I felt a cool breeze coming from the photograph. The following week I went along to the Sahaja Yoga programme too.' (R.I.)

This young woman, who comes from Italy, feels the coolness coming from a photograph of Shri Mataji. We find by experience that photographs of Shri Mataji, and anything She touches emits the same coolness. In a sense the matter is transformed.

Many people have been healed of serious diseases and others have gained Self Realization from the photograph of Shri Mataji, without ever meeting her. The beautiful smell of roses has been experienced by many people in the vicinity of Shri Mataji, her photo, or places where she has visited, even some time after she has left.

'My mother and I have been involved with Sahaja Yoga for many years. She never misses a chance to take me to an art gallery, but one visit stands out. We were in Milan, Italy in 1998. It was a warm day and we went to the Castello Sforzesco. We walked around for about an hour, until we reached the room which has the Rondanini Pietà by Michelangelo in it.

There were some benches, and being hot and tired, we sat down to look at the statue. We both suddenly felt a blast of cool wind, like air conditioning on full. It seemed to be coming from the direction of the statue.

"You've got strong air conditioning on in here," my mother said to the attendant.
"No, signora, there isn't any in here," he said, looking rather puzzled.
"That was a bit slow of us," laughed my mother, "after all, Michelangelo was a realised soul."' (A.W.)

The mother and daughter feel a powerful cool wind coming from a great work of art. This is a continuation of what has been written above. Because Michelangelo was a realized soul, his artworks emit good, or cool vibrations. And how does one know he was a realized soul? Because if a Sahaja Yogi puts his or her attention on him, a coolness will be felt on the palms of the hands.

Originally published by Oleg Florov on Geocities, which will be shutting down in 2009. The stories and explanations below have been collected from a number of friends and acquaintances around the world, all of whom also have this very special awareness on a daily basis. We hope that you too will enjoy it, and you may easily, if you browse through the following web pages. Central to what we would like to share with you is our gratitude to Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, who, through her gift to the world of Sahaja Yoga, makes it all possible.

"Can the Air Conditioning be Turned Off?"

'We were in Athens in October 2001. It was a warm evening and Shri Mataji was giving a public programme, an introduction to Sahaja Yoga, in a hotel there. In many traditions, one of the signs of Self Realization, or as the Christians say, the awakening of the Holy Spirit, is a cool wind or breeze.

At the end of the programme, Shri Mataji gave the experience of Self Realization or kundalini awakening. Nearly all the people who had come for the first time said they had indeed felt a cool breeze, on their hands and above their heads, but some insisted it was the air conditioning. Someone went to find the hotel staff to ask them to please turn it off, and the staff, when found, said it was not on in the first place.'

-- (M.S.)

ABC Tropical Queensland Interviews Vinola Bandi on Sahaja Yoga

The "Mornings with Kim Kleidon" show on ABC Tropical interviews Australian-Malaysian Sahaja practitioner, Vinola about her experience with Sahaja Yoga. Vinola explains the basics of Sahaja Yoga meditation, i.e. energy centers. Listen to the whole interview here:

Integrating with the Kundalini

Mar 31, 2009

alternate listening link (in case the original web-page is not available)

(alternate audio, if the one above does not work)

Welcome, My Dear Evolutis

(Listen to this blogpost as a podcast)

---

I saw a TED video of Enriquez, who is on track, the idea of "Homo Evolutis", however it stems from technological development and depends on bio-engineering.

The key phrase "a being that takes control of it's own evolution" is the next step for us. Agreed, however if it depends on expensive cyborg retrofits, it's restricted to a small number of people who can afford it. So the argument fails, since it is not universal.

Awakening of the opening of human chakras (energy centers) is the measure of evolution in eastern thought. With the awakening of the kundalini one is no longer dependent on forces of nature for evolution - rather one's own desire drives it through opening of new layers of their chakras. This change is universal, as witnessed by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world practicing Sahaja Yoga in every country. Cultures, countries and continents have been bridged and provided with a universal experience of accelerated self-improvement. Personality and human development can take ages, and the evolution of many births has happened in one swift action. through Sahaja.

Welcome to the new world, fellow Evolutes.

Learn: The Nature of the Spirit

Home is Where the Heart Is.... at Peace

Photo: oasis by mands on flickr

A yogi guest mentioned how, over the past few weeks, he feels that the meditation area in our apartment is an oasis. A place for the vibrationally weary to put down their baggage of thoughts and drink from the fountain of vibrations. Little did he realize that he was a part of the reason why the oasis developed in the first place. His frequent visits keep us on track with meditation and self-purification activities. However, being there all the time, I was unable to appreciate his observation at the time.

After returning from a couple nights out of town, I came back and sat for meditation, expecting an uphill and long period of balancing before hitting a good meditative state. Contrary to expectations I experienced his experience: The instant oasis, which swept up the spirit and washed away the fatigue in a second.

Meditation is one of the most abstract and innate experiences, which is farthest from any mechanical activity. More like an art, it depends on how well you are placed towards yourself in the moment. Meditation melds us with the elements we come from, hence a well defined meditation space is not just a marker in our homes, but provides the required connection with the elements through it's pure energy and tokens of elements. The meditation area, with it's alter and the image of the preceptor provide this divine mix that puts the heart at peace instantly. Truely, home is where the heart is... at peace.

Mentoring Comes Full Circle

Seven long years since the awakening of Kundalini energy, and now it was finally time for a fruitful mentoring relationship to come full circle.

As college age kids, we had very weak foot holding in the realm of spirituality, easily outweighed by the skepticism of a seeking rational mind. But we were fortunate to find a mentor, not too elderly, but wise enough for us to springboard to real spirituality. He is an un-assuming personality, with his own struggles through life - but manages to maintain a cool head and a sensitive heart. We were drawn to him like younger brothers. He dispensed advice, he calmed our doubts, he answered pointed questions and offered the occasional unsolicited suggestion. He came up with simple ways to enjoy the divinity of meditation and when the night wore on, simply slept off in any given position.


Well, seven years past that wonderful mentor ship and we find ourselves at the other end of the world. He is still the wandering mystic, under the guise of an engineer and I am still the wide eyed co-journer looking up to the old soul behind his quiet persona. I was more than eager to invite him home, provide comfort and conversation. But it took months for him to convince himself to get a ride and make the 2 hour trip.

Finally, the day was here. We did the usual coaxing to lead a meditation here, a clearing session there and it was like old times. Living in the occident, we forget the depth of the orient. Young yogis in their 20s would easily surpass the depths of their counterparts when it comes to guiding the attention through the journey of charkas and into the bliss of meditation. That was it, the moment of togetherness in Sahasrara. After the meditation, he made remarks about the vibrational state of America - tremendous vibrations, easy to get into deep meditation - yet difficult to sustain that state. True dat.

Then we say our good-byes and hope that the paths intersect in the future, once more.

Photo: "The Path" (cc) by Steffe

Star Wars & Sahaja Yoga

It is a cheesy, yet endearing thing to compare pop culture with spirituality. But in the case of Star Wars it comes even closer because Goerge Lucas consulted with various eastern scholars in formulating the story and characters of the original Star Wars.

I was introduced to Star Wars quite late into my life, by my wife, of all the people. I was a trekkie, and the trekkie fire had been dwindling because it is actively atheist and Greeko-Roman in it's search for truth. Star Wars came as a breath of fresh air. It was a lot like Mahabharata, where evil burgeons into an empire and the good is sent into exile, but eventually good prevails. And there is no confusion between good and bad. The bad are ugly, black and distinct... well mostly. Here are the top 10 quotes from the Sahaja point of view, IMO. Share your favourite moments in the comments:

You underestimate the power of the Dark Side! -Darth Vader

You know, sometimes I amaze even myself. -Han Solo

Who is more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows him? -Obi Wan Kenobi

Your eyes can deceive you; don't trust them. -Obi Wan Kenobi

The Force is strong with this one. -Darth Vader

Oh, great warrior, hmm? War does not make one great. -Yoda

My ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Its energy surrounds us. -Yoda

Your father was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed. So what I told you was true-from a certain point of view. -Obi Wan Kenobi

-- (Original compilation: Associated Content)

On Rails Of Fire

Inspired by the Life of Lal Bahadur Shastri

The Train of Life

Is rushing through

The country side

Through silent lands you go deep

Where joys and worries are asleep

And then in evening’s humble verse

You’ll hear the pulse of the Universe

The pulse of Love inside your being

The flow of Love the heart would bring

Across the night,

Across the day,

Beyond the Time

That flies away,

And all the wars and troubles you cross

To pour Love on the Universe. . .

The night is dark

When only Star

Of hatred

Lies on its Altar

But if you simply open your heart,

It’ll bring the world Another Light,so

Let your Spirit shine across

The battlefields of the Universe:

There is no force that is stronger than Love

All the weapons melt in the Fire of Love . . .

Across the night,

Across the day,

Beyond the Time

That flies away,

And all the wars and troubles you cross

To bring Peace to the Universe.

The winds of hatred, the snow and rain

They cannot stop or slow your Train

The life might want to hit you hard

But There Is God inside your heart!

And if you want to help the world

Become a flute in the hands of God

And let the melody of Grace

Just flow freely through the space

Across the night,

Across the day,

Beyond the Time

That flies away,

Beyond empires that fall and rise

TO TURN THE EARTH INTO PARADISE . . .

-- Alla Levitan

(c) 2008 All Rights to the words & image reserved by the poet. No part of the poem can be reproduced, performed or published without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.

Crossing Roads: Beautiful Reggae Song on Borotin

East Meets West

I am just beginning to recognize the face in the mirror, though I have seen her endless times. Know Thyself. It is in the Bible, in the Koran, in all the religious scriptures of the world. Why this should be at the heart of spiritual ascent is a mystery. As we move into the global awareness of the twenty-first century, where multi-culturalism is an everyday occurrence, and Anglo-European rationality meets eastern mysticism, what happens to this journey of self-knowledge?

The subtle realm is no longer the exclusive domain of eastern philosophy. Physicists all over the world are now doing research into unseen dimensions, illusive quarks and vibrating strings of energy. Yoga classes are as American as apple pie. My own personal story of cultural and self-integration began twenty years ago, when, as fate would have it, I found myself in the Himalayas, a Jewish girl a long way from home, learning to meditate.


I was on assignment for the Jaipuri Times of India. My husband, one-year-old daughter and I were staying on the family estate of an Indian lawyer in the foothills of the Himalayas. I find India to be a deep and aesthetically beautiful culture, albeit with social problems we are lucky enough not to have.

What it lacks in material comfort is made up for in the generosity of the people, and the general feeling of glee inspired by walking down a street in the company of two camels, three cows, an elephant and a wall mural that is probably a thousand years old. Once you start gaining altitude, the terraced slopes are dotted with wild goats and stone huts, and ringed with dense jungle. The mountains tower up all around, surreal; misty-peaked and sharply etched against the sky. Our friend had just met an extraordinary woman, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi.

(Mahatma Gandhi had sought her advice as a child; now, as the founder of Sahaja Yoga meditation, she has become Spiritual Mother to millions.) In 1981, Sahaja Yoga was slowly growing in India, attracting the attention of restless westerners like us, searching for a spiritual place to call home.

I took to it right away. One unusual aspect that struck me was that Sahaja Yoga starts with the awakening of the spiritual energy Kundalini and self-realization, instead of ending with that. Traditionally, first one's chakras are completely cleansed, which takes ages, and then the Kundalini rises. Maybe. Old-style gurus used to pass on this experience to one or two disciples at most, after years of arduous lessons and privation. Offering this experience right away is pretty outrageous; it implies a bunch of normal people walking around in an awakened state, not just saints living in caves who have practiced severe austerities for lifetimes. The premise is that once you have the light inside yourself, you can see your own problems clearly, and are then better able to work them out. You get in touch with yourself. More than that, the process is expedited, so what used to take people five or ten years to figure out, can be seen much more quickly through meditation and introspection. After learning about Shri Mataji's meditation, I was lucky enough to go to her house in Delhi.

I was standing in the doorway, holding my infant daughter in my arms. Putting her hand lightly on my shoulder, Shri Mataji's eyes sparkled as she said, "Kundalini has risen. They've both got it." It was a fabulousfeeling, like a cool breeze blowing gently over the top of my head.

The basics of Sahaja Yoga are simple. There is Kundalini, a spiritual energy. There is the subtle system of energy, chakras (a Sanskrit word meaning "spinning wheel") and the three channels of the autonomous nervous system. It's not hard to understand. The truth of the matter is that all of our quirks and problems and all of physical reality can be addressed at the level of energy.

Reality is what it is; energy once created is never destroyed…so once you have an understanding of how you are put together in this way, you can really get down to the business of self-knowledge. For example, let's say you suffer from chronic guilt syndrome. Jewish? Catholic? Whatever. That particular problem involves the chakra located on the left side of the neck. By working on that spot, you can really alleviate the problem. Moreover, you start having insights into the inner workings of the situation, and as things start to become clear, you become more and more the master of the situation. Most importantly, you start to transform yourself
from the inside out. You can begin right now. Close your eyes, and imagine a coiled up twist of silken energy threads at the base of your spine. (The Greeks called this the sacrum, the sacred bone: they knew what they were talking about.) Now ask yourself, do you want this energy to waken? Ask yourself the question, "Am I the pure Spirit?" Now hold your hand over your head. Do you feel a cool breeze coming out at the top? This is the Kundalini, newly risen. Now, you've got it.

After my meeting with Shri Mataji in India, I had another serendipitous moment. I was in Jaipur, riding in a horse-drawn wagon with my daughter on my lap. On the sidewalk market, among the red and purple turbans, the richly hued saris, the shining brass plates hanging mirror-like behind pyramids of oranges and mangoes, there appeared a young Muslim woman covered from head to toe in swaths of cloth. A black cotton scarf covered her mouth. Only her eyes were revealed to the world. These eyes caught mine, and my breath as well. We were from completely and utterly different worlds. Her life was unfathomable to me, and mine to her. Yet here we were, on the same side of the world, the same street, the same square hundred feet of red Indian earth between us. Somehow for a fraction of an instant, we made a connection. Everything, the barefoot children laughing behind the long silken braids of their mothers, the cows and camels sauntering insolently among the chaos of India, the fragrance
of earth and incense and spice, everything blurred into formless color, leaving the two of us alone in sharp relief. I could barely breathe. Then she did the outrageously unexpected, an act of
courage: she undid her scarf so that I could look directly into her face.


Her face was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen, by any standard of beauty. What could I do? Wave, or yell out? I could only stare back at her, and it seemed as though she looked triumphant. I felt her femininity, her strength. Her look said, "I may be bound in cloth and fierce tradition. But inside, I am intelligent and present. I want you to see, that, to see me." In one blinding moment our cultures collided, and then it was over. The horses clopped on, we turned a corner, and she was gone. I ponder that moment sometimes. In one way its meaning has remained a mystery, like an archetype, as pure and necessary as a prime number, too deep to plumb. It is evocative, however. As we two made a connection, so a bridge needs to be built, and then crossed, between borders and boundaries, linking us all together. The spiritual path finally is not about eastern mystical paradigms meeting western rational thought. It is about self meeting Self, across all cultural values and interpretations. In today's world, we must bind our hearts to a new pattern, an integration of east and west, giving birth to a modern world free from fear. It will take intelligence, and great courage, to gain possession of our collective ascent. Yes, it is time to drop the veils that blind us to our essential self, that place where we are one beyond individuality, beyond cultural definition. Change is possible. The intelligent beauty of that young woman's face comes back to me clearly now. Her challenge to me is one I put to the mirror, to the face I am coming to recognize, to my daughter grown so quick and fine, to get to work, connect to life, and hurry up! For time waits for no man, or woman, no matter what color earth lies under their feet.

-- By Nancy Partridge


Creative Commons Licensed Photos by Nagesh Kamath, Soqotra (Yemen)

Children with ADHD Benefit from Sahaja Meditation

The ADHD Blog Reports on the benefits of Sahaja Yoga meditation on children:

Windsor Enlightened

Free Meditation Classes featuring Sahaja method of meditation are now being offered at the Windsor, ON College Ave. Community Center. Citizens of Windsor who attended the meetings have expressed great satisfaction at the content of the classes and enjoyed the collective learning, which features stress management, learning about the subtle being (chakras & channels) and balancing techniques.

For meeting directions, click here.

From Light Headed to Strong Hearted

Chronic fainting and me, went hand in hand. Sight or mention of blood would mysteriously induce blackouts which was a lost frontier. However, the unthinkable happened today as I went in for a blood test, anticipating the mandatory dizzy spell.

The last time it happened was about seven years ago, when I went in for a mandatory health check with my friend IP who introduced me to Sahaja Meditation. At the time we were just room-mates and landed jobs at the same company after graduation. After my test, I passed out in the waiting area. IP was back from his blood exam as I was coming around and put attention on my chakras and felt weakness and blockage in the heart chakra quite strongly.

So today, walking into the pathological clinic, the question was - how far has the heart healed? Without thinking much, I focussed on the experience: ready or not here I come.

I disclosed to the medical practitioner my fantastic ability to slide off, laid down and waited for the anxiety to set in. It triggers with the 'hosital smells' and increases to the point where the ears are ringing and I slip into blissful black. So I waited, and I waited.

Nothing happened, the heart was beating steady. The mind was still functioning. Apparently the heart chakra had healed a long time ago. Enough water had flowed under the bridge and enough love of the divine had marinated the heart chakra over the years. Many devotional divine moments, years of affirmations over the heart in meditation and brought about a transformation which was evident in the small victory today. Thank you Sahaja Yoga.

Photo: dizzy heights (CC) by by stuant63 on flickr

Festival of Lights in Romania

There is no better way to celebrate Diwali, the festival of lights, than meditating itself. Shri Mataji has encouraged practitioners of Sahaja Yoga to consider lighting the light within and celebrate the spirit of the festival which marks the victory of good over evil. I personally love Diwali in Sahaja yoga because no longer we are mindlessly blowing up crackers and creating noise & air pollution. Rather growing deep and let our lights spread into the world.

Learn & Fun Videos: Footsoaking

Footsoaking is a wonderful exercise to clear out our lower chakras. The benefits are direct: at the first chakra you get grounded, at the second, reduce thoughts and at the third, reduce worries.

The first item here is a youtube video explaining footsoaking. The second one is a fun video showing two Canadian yoginis beating the odds to do a successful and fun footsoak: Enjoy!

Self-Realization Through Kundalini Awakening

In the last two blog posts we got introduced to the concept of Sahaja and the inner being, our sublte system. Here we will follow a short guided meditation by founder of Sahaja Yoga, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi.