Music
The following is a beautiful talk by Baba Mama, Shri Mataji’s beloved brother who brought the creative arts, especially music, to the forefront in Sahaja Yoga. He encouraged and inspired Sahaja Yogis to greater and greater creative heights.
You believe that God is omnipresent, omnipotent and all-pervading. In fact, you believe that He is in every atom. As natural corollary of this belief, you must also know that God knows what you want or what your need is. If the first proposition is true, then second proposition has to be true. It would follow, therefore, that those who know that God is omnipotent and all-pervading are bound to accept that God is all-knowledgeable and therefore is aware of all your problems.
In spite of this fact, we always go to God with certain expectations. Expectations can be of various types, but are basically self-centred or are pertaining to people or relations you are attached to, and then you pray to God that He should grant you a particular relief, or a job promotion, or some benefit to you or your near ones, etc. When you go with this frame of mind, then most of the time you are disappointed. Hypothetically speaking, if your expectations are symbolised in A and what you get is, let us say, B; then A minus B is your disappointment. And then you have to attribute this disappointment to someone. The pessimists will attribute it to their bad luck and will always curse themselves for not being worthy of God’s favour.
The optimists will straight away blame God Himself, and they say that this God is not good and that we should shift to some other God. In this way you keep on shifting from God to God, but disappointment is always there. This may even make you anti-God and an atheist, ultimately. Now take a case where you do not go to God with any expectations. Therefore, the expectations are zero, and let us say that you get B as the reward. Therefore, B minus zero is B which is always surplus.
You should also distinguish between your expectations and desires, and pure desires. Pure desire is always for the benefit of the other, and therefore you are entitled to carry pure desires to the Divinity. I once remember, I was travelling with Shri Mataji from Sydney to Canberra, and it was very hot and the air-conditioning of the car was thoroughly inadequate. Shri Mataji was sweating and I was fanning Her with a newspaper, but I somehow felt that the heat was oppressive and that the weather should give some respite to Her. Reading my mind, She asked me a question as to what I was thinking, to which I told Her frankly that I was unable to see Her suffer because of heat. So She told me that I should make a pure desire and the weather would change. So I closed my eyes and made a pure desire that the weather should change.
Within five minutes, dark clouds gathered from nowhere and it started raining, and the intensity of heat was thus reduced and Shri Mataji said, “See, if you make a pure desire then it will always be fulfilled.”
Coming back to expectations, I may mention here that once you are connected to your Divinity through your Self Realisation, you should feel assured that you have been admitted into the Kingdom of God, that you are His subject and therefore He is duty-bound to look after you, irrespective of what you expect of Him. So please do not expect… Only pray to Shri Mataji that She should make you what She wants you to be.
Baba Mama, 1999
Everyone is now familiar with the stereotypical image of a yogi sitting cross-legged chanting the sound, “OM”. But what is the real significance of “OM”?
OM is the primordial sound of the universe, the first sound, the sound that was made at the Big Bang, the beginning of our universe, and it resonates within our being. OM has the power to take us into meditation, to make us one with the universe, to take us into the the silence and the peace that is the vastness and the power of the universe, like the stillness of a bottomless lake that has no ripples.
The sound, OM, was made when matter first started to divide and differentiate and to recombine. OM is actually made up of three separate sounds, A-U-M, that together make the sound, OM. The first is “A” which sounds like “ar” as in “car”. The second is “U” which sounds like “oo” as in “book”. The third is “M” which sounds like “m” as in “man”. These sounds can help to keep us in balance. How?
Human beings have within them a subtle body which consists of three channels and seven chakras. The three channels are connected to our emotions on the left, our physical and mental activity on the right and our integration and balance in the centre. If we are over-emotional we are operating too much on the left side, and if we are thinking and planning too much or are over-active physically then we are using our right side too much. These situations cause the imbalances which lead to physical and mental health problems.
The central channel is generally activated only when we achieve our Self-realisation. This happens when the residual life force (called the Kundalini) which resides in the sacrum bone in every human being rises up through the spine, through the limbic area in the brain and out the top of the head at the fontanelle bone area. It then connects us with the All-pervading Power of the universe, the force that created us, the force that keeps the planets in their orbits and makes the seeds sprout in the Mother Earth.
Once we have our Self-realisation we can go into “thoughtless awareness”, the state of true meditation in which we are awake and alert but we are not thinking. In thoughtless awareness the Kundalini flows through us, balancing our subtle systems and clearing our chakras, giving us good health and feelings of well-being. As we continue to meditate and to strengthen this connection, the Kundalini flows more strongly and we are able to enjoy the silence, the space between the thoughts, to be the pure consciousness, to feel one with the whole of creation.
After our Self-realisation, when we have that connection to the force that created us, the sounds of the OM (AUM) can help to clear and balance our channels. If we use as a mantra the sound, A (“ar” as in “car”), it will help to clear the left channel, the sound, U (“oo” as in “book”), will help to clear the right channel and the sound, M (“m” as in “man”) ,will work on the central channel. As a result, the whole system will come into balance.
The sound, OM, also has the power to clear each of the chakras when sung at the pitch which resonates with the particular chakra, and it can raise the Kundalini when sung up the musical scale.
So, sit comfortably, on the floor or on a chair, hands palm upwards on your lap. Take a few deep breaths, and relax. Now sing, “Aaaaoooommm,” and let the sound take you into meditation, into the stillness and the silence and the peace that is the vastness of the universe where you are at one with the whole of creation and are nothing but pure consciousness. Enjoy!
Kay Alford
(Illustration: affirmations.goingon.com)
A specia
l evening of meditation and joyful music will be held in Paddington, Sydney on Saturday 14 July 2007. Come along and learn how to experience mental silence and peace through the simple Sahaja Yoga Meditation technique. You can also enjoy beautiful world music performed by “Music of Joy”. Listen to a song from Music of Joy: [audio:20 – 20 – Australian Bhajans Group _ Bolo Shiva Shiva Shambhu.mp3] Paddington Public School Saturday 14 July, 7.30pm – 9.00pm Corner of Oxford and Elizabeth Sts (where Paddington Markets are held). The meeting will be held in Hall Block C, at the rear of the school. Enter via the Elizabeth St driveway gate. A four week follow-up course will start on Wed 18 July at 7.30pm – 8.45pm. All events free of charge For more information about the evening, follow-up courses and programs, visit www.sahajayoga.com.au/paddington or phone 0415 289 420.
The following is a beautiful talk by Baba Mama, Shri Mataji’s beloved brother who brought the creative arts, especially music, to the forefront in the Sahaj family. He encouraged and inspired Sahaja Yogis to greater and greater creative heights. One can say he was the embodiment of music in Sahaja Yoga.
You believe that God is omnipresent, omnipotent and all-pervading. In fact, you believe that He is in every atom. As natural corollary of this belief you must also know that God knows what you want or what your need is. If the first proposition is true, then second proposition has to be true. It would follow, therefore, that those who know that God is omnipotent and all-pervading are bound to accept that God is all-knowledgeable and therefore is aware of all your problems.
In spite of this fact, we always go to God with certain expectations. Expectations can be of various types, but are basically self-centred or are pertaining to people or relations you are attached to, and then you pray to God that He should grant you a particular relief, or a job promotion, or some benefit to you or your near ones, etc. When you go with this frame of mind, then most of the time you are disappointed. Hypothetically speaking, if your expectations are symbolized in A and what you get is, let us say, B; then A minus B is your disappointment. And then you have to attribute this disappointment to someone. The pessimists will attribute it to their bad luck and will always curse themselves for not being worthy of God’s favour. The optimists will straight away blame God Himself, and they say that this God is not good and that we should shift to some other God. In this way you keep on shifting from God to God, but disappointment is always there. This may even make you anti-God and an atheist, ultimately. Now take a case where you do not go to God with any expectations. Therefore, the expectations are zero, and let us say that you get B as the reward. Therefore, B minus zero is B which is always surplus.
You should also distinguish between your expectations and desires and pure desires. Pure desire is always for the benefit of the other, and therefore you are entitled to carry pure desires to the Divinity. I once remember, I was travelling with Shri Mataji from Sydney to Canberra, and it was very hot and the air conditioning of the car was thoroughly inadequate. Shri Mataji was sweating and I was fanning Her with a newspaper, but I somehow felt that the heat was oppressive and that the weather should give some respite to Her. Reading my mind, She asked me a question as to what I was thinking, to which I told Her frankly that I was unable to see Her suffer because of heat. So She told me that I should make a pure desire and the weather would change. So I closed my eyes and made a pure desire that the weather should change. Within five minutes, dark clouds gathered from nowhere and it started raining, and the intensity of heat was thus reduced, and Shri Mataji said, “See, if you make a pure desire, then it will always be fulfilled.”
Coming back to expectations, I may mention here that once you are connected to your Divinity through your Self-realization, you should feel assured that you have been admitted into the Kingdom of God, that you are His subject and therefore He is duty-bound to look after you, irrespective of what you expect of Him.
Baba Mama, 1999