Personal experiences
“Silence Your Mind”
by Dr Ramesh Manocha
A new book by Dr Ramesh Manocha, called “Silence Your Mind”, provides simple techniques for stopping incessant thoughts that may be interfering with your happiness and general functioning in life. Dr Manocha shares his own personal experiences that led to his interest in Sahaja Yoga meditation as a means of stilling the mind and experiencing the peace that comes when “mind chatter” stops and thoughtless awareness begins.
A leading researcher in the field of meditation and health, Dr Manocha explains in simple and very interesting terms the research that he has undertaken to study the effects of Sahaja Yoga meditation on medical conditions. These include epilepsy, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, menopausal symptoms and asthma.The book provides simple, easy-to-follow techniques to assist in silencing the mind and achieving peace of mind.
The book is available at book stores in Australia and as a Kindle e-book from Amazon. Click here for details.
(Manocha, Ramesh. Silence Your Mind. Sydney: Hatchette Australia, 2013.)
Music of Joy concert, Ho Chi Minh City
I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City one week after the very successful tour by the Sahaja Yoga Music of Joy music group from Australia (Click here for a video clip of the Music of Joy). This visit was part of the Realise Asia Tour that was conducted throughout the Asian region, visiting Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma) and China, as well as Vietnam, in July 2010.
About 1000 people had registered beforehand for the Ho Chi Minh program, scheduled for 3 July. As the hall was not large enough to accommodate such a large number, a second concert was organised for the following day. Five hundred people attended the first concert, and a further two hundred came back the next day for the second concert.
A joyful experience for the audience
After Music of Joy performed, a Self-realisation session was provided. The joy on the faces of the people attending was wonderful to behold. This joy soon expressed itself in spontaneous dancing.
Since then, follow-up programs have been held for those wishing to find out more about Sahaja Yoga and its benefits, and learn how to meditate. It was one of these follow-up programs that I was privileged to attend.
Ben Tanh Markets, Ho Chi Minh City
The session I attended was run by Katie from Malaysia, who spoke to the group in English. Her words were translated into Vietnamese by Tuyet and Giang. The subject for the day was Kundalini, the primordial energy within all of us, residing in the sacrum bone. Kundalini can be awakened by the presence of someone who already has his or her Kundalini awakened. If a person has the desire for it to happen, the Kundalini will awaken, rise through the spinal cord and come out of the top of the head, at the fontanelle bone area. When this happens, the person becomes connected with the All-pervading Power. This process is called Self-realisation.
Shri Mataji
After the session on Kundalini, which was preceded by a guided meditation, we watched a short video of a talk by Shri Mataji, the founder of Sahaja Yoga. After that, we had another beautiful, deep meditation. At the end, there were lots of questions from the participants, with people wanting to find out more about Kundalini, Self-realisation and Sahaja Yoga.
Ho Chi Minh City at night
It was a wonderful experience and a great honour for me to take part in this follow-up program. The Vietnamese are very sweet and loving people, and it was a great pleasure for me to share this experience with my Vietnamese brothers and sisters.
Opera House, Ho Chi Minh City
I was also fortunate enough to be in Ho Chi Minh City at the time of Guru Puja. Guru Puja is celebrated around the world, and is a time when we pay homage to our gurus. In Sahaja yoga, our Guru is Shri Mataji. Happily, through Sahaja Yoga we also attain the ability to become our own gurus. During the Puja, we watched a video talk by Shri Mataji where She discussed the qualities of a guru, how we can tell who is a real guru, and the qualities we need to develop within ourselves so that we can become our own gurus. These qualities include patience, wisdom and discretion.
Vietnam is a very beautiful country, and I really enjoyed my visit there. Ho Chi Minh City has many wonderful parks, gardens and street plantings, gracious old buildings, built by the French, and modern skyscrapers. It is a vibrant, beautiful city.
Vung Tau, Vietnam
I also visited Vung Tau, a lovely beachside resort city, about one and a half hours away from Ho Chi Minh City by fast, modern ferry. An International Food Festival, which attracted huge crowds, was held while I was there.
While I greatly enjoyed my visit to Vietnam and look forward to visiting again in the future, the high point of my trip was the opportunity to meet and spend time with the Vietnamese Sahaja yogis.
Editor
Butterfly
Many years ago I was given the lovely job of listing the gifts that were given at the pujas, so I used to sit on the stage listing the gifts and then I used to supervise them being packed up. On one occasion a large number of gifts had been offered, including some very small ones.
“Where is that little butterfly that the boy gave Me?” Shri Mataji asked me in the evening. Luckily I could find it, and it had been made by a small boy.
“These things are the most important, because they come from the heart,” She said to me.
Danielle Lee
From: Eternally Inspiring Recollections of Our Holy Mother. Pune, India: Nirmal Transformations.
I was looking for a way to manage stress (emotional, mental or physical) and this led me to Sahaja Yoga meditation which provided an easy technique that could be practised whenever I liked. “Simple” and “effortless” are the two qualities that make this a unique method of achieving mental stillness, or a state of thoughtless awareness, or silence, or peace – basically, the state of meditation.
Like me, there are people in over ninety countries enjoying the benefits of Sahaja Yoga meditation today. And here is an opportunity (which is always free of charge) suitable for people of all ages and backgrounds to do the same. People who have jobs, families, day-to-day activities to deal with, people like me who have practised this meditation for several years, run these classes voluntarily to help the community.
The principles and basics will be explained. So there is no need to worry if you are new to meditation. The programs run for about an hour and the starting time is 7:30pm every Wednesday. People are free to join at any time. Please feel free to attend any of the classes, and we would love to hear how your experience was.
Time: Wednesdays, 7:30 pm
Venue: Lidcombe Community Centre, 3 Bridge St (underneath Lidcombe library), Lidcombe, NSW
For further details: Phone 0425 261 119 or 0403 754 773
Nitin Gupta