Sahaja Yoga Introduction

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

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

The swadisthana chakra rotates around the Void area, shown above as a green circle. It has two aspects, corresponding to the left and right channels.

On the right channel it has the quality of creativity. Artists often have a problem with this centre as they tend to overuse it. On a physical level it governs the liver and we know in Sahaja Yoga that on the subtle level it affects our attention. Diet can affect the liver and in turn our attention, and substances such as alcohol and other drugs affect this centre adversely. This centre breaks down fat cells to replace the grey and white cells in the brain and it is vitally important for our thinking processes.

Our attention is to be looked after as it is the basis for meditation, which in turn is essential for any spiritual progress. Practising Sahaja Yoga meditation results in an improvement and settling down of the attention. There are so many things to distract our attention all around us and to take it to whatever is external that it is a relief to be able to overcome and to take the attention inside through meditation. The key to overcoming the problems of the swadisthan on the right side is thoughtless awareness, the essence of meditation. Problems affecting this centre on the right-hand side manifest as tingling or heat in the thumb of the right hand.

The quality of the swaisthana chakra on the left-hand side is pure knowledge (nirmala vidya) . This centre can be affected when one goes to false spiritual teachers or through reading about false teachings. It can also be affected through spiritualism, black magic and too much attention to those who have died. Problems affecting this centre on the left-hand side manifest as tingling of the left thumb.

Here is an extract from a talk by the founder of Sahaja Yoga about the Swadisthana chakra:

“There is another center here down below, if you see, is called as the center of Swadisthana, which gives aortic plexus as the gross manifestation of itself. Now when this center goes into imbalance, it goes round and round this ocean. Also it can retract. It can go further. What happens? Now this is a center for our future and for our creativity when it comes to the right. And when it moves to the left because it has got a step, like a lotus it moves. And if it comes to the left, it acts for something what we call unauthorized, anti-god activity. So another one is also unauthorized, because when we say that, “I am doing that,” then it is ego, is created in you and which passes into that pouch there in the head like a balloon and you form a big institution of ego in your head. On the other side is this one, where it comes to the left or any conditioning that takes place, that people say, “Don’t do that, and don’t do that,” and all kinds of conditionings through any kind of teachings, that creates another institution is called as superego.

Now when we go to the extremes of anything, how problems are caused, example of that I will try to give of one center, because there is no time for Me to cover all the centers. Take this Swadisthana Chakra. It has a very important work to do, is to transform the fat cells of the stomach for the use of the cells of the brain. Brain also is made of fat cells, and when a person thinks, this special Swadisthana Chakra converts the fat cells for the use of the brain. Now, when you think too much for the future, you think, think, think. I mean, people are mad with thinking. Some of them did tell Me, “Mother, you cut my throat, do what You like, but stop my thinking.” It has become another inertia sort of thing. They just go on thinking. They just can’t stop thinking, whatever they may try.

So when this process starts of thinking, then what happens that this Swadisthana, poor thing, goes into a great speedy process of transforming the fat cells. Now it has some other work to be done. Now this is going to the extreme, to think about everything. Sitting down they will think that now they have become the Prime Minister of Australia, so what should they do to correct. I mean, there’s nothing like an election. Nothing has happened, but they are already thinking for the Prime Minister. If they are driving on the street, they are thinking for all the Police Department. If they are building one house, they’ll try to find faults with another house so that he should not have done, while the house they are going to make might collapse. But all the time the idea is to see and think about everything else that doesn’t concern them.

So this heavy load on your head makes it a big ego there. Apart from that, ego which is a horrid thing, which can make you absolutely stupid, but apart from that, it makes this poor Swadisthana Chakra work so hard that you neglect other important things in your body, the organs like your liver. Such people have very bad livers, those who think all the time, plan all the time. They will plan. Even the ladies will plan all the cooking. Imagine, ladies planning all the cooking. It’s absurd! Because you go to the market, you have planned for the fish and there is no fish in the market, and you are upset because you can’t cook fish. But why did you plan? Whatever you get, you bring it home and cook it. That’s the best way. So this planning business also goes on too far. When we go to the extremes it so happens, that we make this work too hard and we get a liver trouble. Then we get also the pancreas out of gear, because pancreas has to work, has to be worked though this Swadisthana Chakra. When it is out of gear, the disease you get is diabetes. The simple thing as diabetes. Now in India if you go and see the villagers in India, they take at least five spoons of sugar; otherwise, they don’t think it’s a tea. For tea, they must have five spoons of sugar, and they never, never suffer from diabetes. But in the cities, where the people even just touch the sugar, they get it back in their urine. So something wrong with the city people. And what is wrong with them is, that they are using this Swadisthana Chakra all the time for thinking and thinking and thinking.

Now another disease that one gets out of it, is the disease of the spleen, which is a very serious thing. Spleen produces red blood corpuscles according to the necessity of the person. Now, any emergency arises, it starts producing more RBCs. Our life is such that we are always in emergencies. Everyone is. Whether he is a shop keeper or he is a minister, everybody seems to be very busy. Now, in the morning first of all to read newspapers, is another curse. Because you read newspapers, you hear, “This is burnt. That is finished. So many died. Somebody in the aeroplane finished off,” maybe our relations are there – so you get a real pain there in the stomach. That’s done by this poor spleen. It goes into a big process, into a very big mechanical production of RBC starts. Now when that happens to you then you don’t know that you better keep the spleen now at least little rested for other things. But just then you will ask for a breakfast. You will get into the car, with a breakfast in your hand eating that. And there is a jam in the way, and then you are screaming at, because you are late. All sorts of things happen to us like that and we go on creating emergencies for ourselves. For what? What are we going to gain out of it? With this hurry and scurry what have we achieved? So this spleen goes out of order. It does not understand the crazy person. It becomes crazy itself. And it starts producing red blood corpuscles, this thing, that thing. Now you become vulnerable to a horrible disease called as leukemia. Of course, it is triggered by something else, about which I may be able to tell you, today or tomorrow. But you are just vulnerable for a disease called leukemia where just doctors will say you may die within one month or two months. That’s all they can say about leukemia. ”

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, founder of Sahaja Yoga, Public Program, Melbourne, 9 March 1983

Tags: aesthetics, attention, chakra, creativity, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, swadisthana

Tags: sahaja yoga, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

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

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

A hypothesis in Sahaja Yoga is that we have within us a subtle system with energy centres that can be felt after self-realisation. When we get self-realisation we become connected to the all-pervading energy of the cosmos, and as a result we become subtly aware of ourselves and others.

In the diagram the energy centres, or chakras, are shown as circles of different colours, in line with the spinal chord.

The awareness of the energy centres gives a tremendously objective view of ourselves. We don’t “think” that we have this or that problem but we can actually feel the source of our problems on our finger tips. We all have a great capacity to rationalise our experiences, to justify our actions through the power of our mind. Through this vibratory awareness which we get through Sahaja Yoga meditation we are able to use a much more reliable measure of ourselves. In short, we begin to “know ourselves.”

The amazing thing is that every problem that we have, whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, can be related to disturbances, also known as “catches” on these energy centres. If you look at the picture you will see that the colours shown on the hand correspond to colours shown on the body. For example, the thumb has a yellow colour and this corresponds to the colour of the second energy centre at the base of the green circle in the picture.

Further, if we are able to cleanse these energy centres, also called “clearing”, we can actually cure these energy centres. A number of articles have been published in scientific publications to demonstrate that Sahaja Yoga does work when this approach is used.

In addition to the chakras there are also three nadis, the the three vertical lines shown in the diagram, with yellow, white and blue colours. These correspond to our overall state of balance. If we are moving on the left channel, the moon channel, the blue line in the diagram, then we are more active on the emotional side, and may be prone to depression, or in extreme cases suicidal tendencies. If we are moving on the right channel, the sun channel, shown as a yellow line in the diagram, then we tend to plan a lot, be futuristic and very active. The central channel, or white channel in the diagram represents the ideal state of balance in Sahaja Yoga, where we tend to be in a meditative, witness state.

The kundalini is shown as a coil between the red and yellow energy centres, indicating its potential state. It lies dormant in every human until awakened, at which point it travels through the energy centres and pierces the fontannel bone in our head. Interestingly, fontanelle means “little fountain.” When this happens the person has achieved the state of self-realisation.

In later articles we will have a closer look at the different energy centres.

Tags: chakra, meditation, sahaja yoga, subtle system