Sahaja Yoga Meditation Introduction

The Mooladhara chakra is situated at the base of the spine within the pelvic plexus. Moola means ‘root’ and adhara means ‘the support.’ It is the foundation of the whole subtle system and hence very important in Sahaja Yoga. On a gross level it governs excretion and sex. On a subtle level it is responsible for the qualities of innocence, wisdom, chastity and holiness within us. Innocence is a quality that is evident in babies and young children as well as some adults and provides them with a magenetic quality. Innocence can never be destroyed. It is an eternal quality, but it can be covered by the clouds of incorrect actions.

Through Sahaja Yoga cleansing pratices we can purify this centre and bring it back into a balanced state. This centre is strongly associated with the earth element, and hence sitting on the Mother Earth is very helpful. It is also good to place the feet in a bowl of warm water containing salt, also known as footsoaking. It helps to keep the attention on nature, especially the earth, the sky and grass, as these sooth and cleanse the attention.

Now this first centre is very important because this was the first centre that was created when the Primordial Being started doing the job. This is the centre of innocence that is holiness. First thing that was created was holiness on this earth. This centre is very important in all the human beings because animals have innocence. They have not lost it, while we have a right or we can say we have a freedom to abandon it. We can do it, we can somehow or other destroy it by our so-called ideas of freedom.

Now this centre has a power to give us wisdom. Now wisdom is such a, such a word that cannot be explained. Wisdom is the balance between your understanding of what is good and what is bad. Where you really understand what is good for you, for your spirit, is wisdom; and when this centre is alive and is not destroyed then you really know what is wisdom is. For example the person who has got this centre very well developed can tell you whether it is the north or the south, because the magnetism that is in the Mother Earth, this centre is made by the element of Mother Earth. So the magnetism that is in the Mother Earth is there present in this centre. When the birds fly all the way from Siberia to Australia they do it with the help of this centre because they know whether they are moving northward or southward. They have an innate wisdom to know which way to move and that’s why one should know that this centre is also within us but we have lost our sense of judgment because we have lost that magnetism within us.

An innocent person is really like a magnet and it attracts, he attracts, the people towards himself, just like a flower attracts a bee towards itself. There are some fishes in which they have found actual magnetic a, field and in some of them they have even found a regular magnet placed in certain fishes by which they know whether they are going north, south, east or west. This centre in us can be destroyed by various ways as I told you last time. Now if you see on from the top there’s a blue line coming down. This is the power of our desire, by which we desire; is the emotional side of a human being. When a person neglects his emotional side or does not respect his emotional side then this centre gets lost. It gets very much destroyed. The emotional side in these modern times is not well understood by human beings. I’m sorry to say but it is very true that when you destroy this centre, first thing that sets in is impotency or over activity, like the rapist and all that are created because this centre is neglected.

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, speaking at a Sahaja Yoga public program in Sydney, 24 March 1981

Originally posted 2007-12-17 19:59:06. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Tags: chakra, innocence, meditation, mooladhara chakra, sahaja yoga, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, subtle system

Originally posted 2014-11-14 19:25:07. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The Nabhi Chakra is associated with the spiritual qualities of righteousness, evolution and seeking. This centre also relates to our financial well-being and the extent to which the housewife is respected in the family and society. If there are financial difficulties or too much thinking about money this centre also gets affected. Too much attention on food also causes this centre to go out of balance. Once we have experienced our Self-realisation through Sahaja Yoga this centre becomes very sensitive to activity that goes against the principle of right conduct and such activity results in a feeling of nausea.

When this centre is awakened and cleansed one experiences a feeling of satisfaction and peacefulness which replaces the constant striving for a better material situation which is so typical of modern society.

This centre controls the liver, kidneys, stomach and gall bladder. Of these, the liver is especially significant in Sahaja Yoga as it controls the attention. Without a settled attention one is unable to meditate. Diet does play a role in soothing down the liver and when it is overheated it is best to avoid greasy foods, ice cream, butter, chocolate, black tea and coffee. Alcohol is harmful to the liver and also affects the Void area, the centre of self-mastery. The following are very cooling for the liver: cane sugar, white rice, yoghurt and ginger. Most fruits are also very cooling especially grapes and vegetables and especially radishes are very good too.

This centre is associated with the water element and it is very helpful to place the feet in a river or in the sea or in a bucket of water with some salt added. Many people who have suffered from insomnia have found this very helpful.

Here is an extract from a talk by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, founder of Sahaja Yoga:

“The third center within us, which is the naval center, which looks after the solar plexus on the gross, is called as the Nabhi Chakra meaning the naval center and is responsible for giving us the seeking. We should know why do we seek. Why do we seek food to begin with? We feel hungry, but how do we know that we are hungry and that we want food? Even a child knows that, even an animal knows that; how? This is the center tells us that now you are hungry better go and have some food. And this is the center tells us now you better seek some money, maybe some power, maybe all the human things that we seek and waste our life quite a lot in that. After that when you are affluent when you have solved all these mundane things like no more we are living in the jungles like animals. Then we start thinking that there must be something beyond because I have got everything now but I haven’t got joy. I don’t feel joyous. I am not satisfied, what is that? When this seeking starts then you are a special category of seekers for which William Blake has clearly written very, very clearly two hundred years back he said that men of God will become prophets and they will have powers to make others prophets and that is today’s Sahaja Yoga. This seeking is a special category of people who we find now a days all over the world. That’s why I said it at the very outset that you do not find so many seekers, in the history of spirituality so many seekers. But today there are thousands and thousands; I would say millions and millions of seekers. But what happens to them? Again they get lost. Some start getting lost in the intellectual understanding of God, finished. How can you understand God with this limited brain? He’s unlimited. You have to go beyond this mind to understand. What can we understand of that God who does all these marvelous things of living processes which we cannot do even a wee bit with this brain of ours? So some are lost in the books and some are lost in the organized religions, finished.”
Talk by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, founder of Sahaja Yoga, 2 August1984, Leicester, England

Originally posted 2008-01-28 18:29:19. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Tags: attention, dharma, liver, nabhi chakra, peace, righteousness, sahaja yoga, satisfaction, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, spiritual evolution

The Vishuddhi chakra, situated at the throat level, governs communication. If the Vishuddhi on the right side becomes overactive then the person becomes loud, aggressive, disrespectful towards others. The Vishuddhi on the left side becomes affected when one feels guilty. When this happens one can become shy, timid, sly or sarcastic. If one indulges into feels of guilt too much this can result in angina, or even cervical cancer. The centre Vishuddhi when affected causes a person to have difficulties communicating with others.

Qualities of the Vishuddhi chakra are: diplomacy, sweetness of speech, collectivity, collective consciousness (by being connected to the same source we become aware of each other as well as the source), witness power (the ability to be detached in any situation and not to get caught up in it), and on the left side, the brother-sister relationship as well as self-confidence.

Feeling guilty is usually a form of escapism, and stops us from facing ourselves, and in particular, our ego. Through introspection we can find out if we are indulging into feelings of guilt in this way and so stop ourselves from falling into this trap. In the West we are also conditioned to think of ourselves as “sinners” and this contributes to our sense of guilt. The affirmation “Mother, I am not guilty” helps to neutralise these negative conditionings which stop the kundalini from rising.

The Hamsa chakra, situated between the eyebrows, is also part of the Vishuddhi and has the quality of discrimination, enabling us to determine which action is appropriate at any point. It also governs our sense of intuition, and through meditation our sense of intuition can become strongly developed.

The Vishuddhi chakra governs the throat, teeth, face and mouth. It also has another very important aspect in Sahaja yoga, in that it enables our sense of vibrations. Sometimes people don’t feel vibrations at the beginning, just after getting their Self-realisation, because this centre is out of balance, but as their vibrations improve they start to feel them.

The witness state is very important in that it allows us to detach ourselves from our ego and superego and from the situation that we are in. When our ego or superego reacts in a situation we observe these rather than identifying with them.

Did you see the sky, how beautiful it was? How orange, blue, all kinds of colours were there. The colour it takes, automatically, and is enjoying it. It is not bothered that it should remain forever, that this will go away when there is darkness. Just watching! The sky is just watching. Whatever comes its way, it takes it. So, it’s so beautiful and it’s so joy-giving.

So the another thing is that, when you are in that state of spirituality, then you are joy-giving, you are peace giving, you are compassionate and you love each other. All these problems of the ego just disappear. Ego is your greatest enemy I think, and it is the one that really hinders all the wealth and beauty of your life. So if you could just see this ego, how it works, just you’ll be enjoying it. It’s a drama it plays, alright? Let’s have it! You can see the drama and then suddenly you will be amazed that you are not in it, you are watching it. When you are detached from your ego you can see how it tries to entice you.

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, founder of Sahaja Yoga, 25.12.2000

Originally posted 2008-04-14 17:55:51. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Tags: collective consciousness, communication, detachment, diplomacy, ego, Hamsa chakra, meditation, sahaja yoga, self-confidence, sweetness, vishuddhi chakra

The Void is the centre of self-mastery within us. This centre enables us to remain in a balanced state in spite of the pressures of every-day existence, provided that we stay within the boundaries of certain spiritual laws. These laws can be found in the scriptures of all religions. One example of such a set of laws is the Ten Commandments. These laws are not designed to punish us, but rather to keep us in a state of harmony with each other and the Divine. When the Kundalini is awakened it enlightens this area and we become naturally righteous.

The Void in the subtle system (shown in green in the diagram of the subtle system) represents the Ocean of Illusion, also known as the Bhavasagara. The Kundalini has to cross this ocean to take us out of our state of illusion. This occurred at a symbolic level when Moses parted and then crossed the Red Sea.

Mankind has been very fortunate in that ten great masters have taken their births in order to help establish this principle of self-mastery and righteousness within us. They are: Moses, Abraham, Raja Janaka, Mohammed Sahib,Guru Nanak, Sai Nath of Shirdi, Zarathustra, Confucius, Lao Tse and Socrates.

This centre is associated with the water element and a very helpful cleansing technique is to place one’s feet into a bucket of warm water with a handful of salt and to meditate for a period of time.

Originally posted 2008-02-24 12:06:44. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Tags: Abraham, Confucius, Guru Nanak, Lao Tse, Mohammed Sahib, Moses, Raja Janaka, righteousness, sahaja yoga, Sai Nath of Shirdi, self-mastery, Socrates, void, Zarathustra