Shri Mataji
The reason why many turn to substance abuse is that they are unable to d
eal with life’s problems. Depression and anger, sadness and frustration are further fuelled by drug-dependency, alcoholism or both.
Daniel Goleman in a book entitled Emotional Intelligence says that it is the lack of application of intelligence to emotions that makes one lonely, depressed, angry, unruly, prone to worry, impulsive and aggressive.
A scientific assessment of the emotional and spiritual mind has emerged in an attempt to understand why we can be reasonable one moment and irrational the very next moment. Goleman attributed it to two minds, one emotional and the other rational; one that feels and one that thinks. The rational mind is prominent in analytical approach while the other one can be impulsive, powerful and at times illogical. He argues that the emotional mind is far quicker than the rational mind at making split-second decisions without analytical reflection about the potential consequences. This can be bewildering to the analytically inclined rational mind.
Spiritual teachers such as Buddha and Jesus touched their disciples’ hearts by speaking the language of emotions. This is why their teachings are so effective.
Why is improving the emotional quotient (EQ) or imbibing spiritual intelligence important? Because it helps us deal with problems in a constructive manner, and stops us getting addicted to harmful habits like substance abuse.
Family members can take an interest in improving the EQ and spiritual quotient (SQ) of their near and dear ones as an effective way to combat drug abuse. One method is practising yoga and meditation to enhance emotional intelligence and manage stress. To manage stress, we need to leverage intelligence without having to make drastic changes in lifestyle. Not everyone can retreat to the Himalayas or engage in difficult Hatha Yoga.
Sahaja Yoga, founded by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, is a method which helps achieve self-realisation in a simple and practical manner. Sahaja Yoga is based on the principle that enlightenment and good health require proper balance within the seven major chakras.
Shri Mataji says, “En masse inner transformation by self-realization is the reality now. Sahaja Yoga is the spontaneous union of individual consciousness with the all-pervading power through the awakening of the residual power of the Kundalini.
“Just as an egg gets transformed into a bird or a seed into a plant, Sahaja Yoga helps transformation of a person to a higher awareness level. The awakening of the inherent dormant energy can be accomplished in a practical and simple manner.”
Adapted from India Times
On one of my many travels to India I purchased a beautiful book entitled, The Devi Gita – The Song of the Goddess: A Translation, Annotation and Commentary, by C. Mackenzie Brown. In the Introduction there is a description of Kundalini Yoga:
The Kundalini system presupposes an esoteric or subtle physiology, consisting of several mystic energy channels or arteries (nadis) within the body, connecting various psychoenergetic centres (chakras, padmas) lying along the central axis or spine.
In the lowermost centre, the Base Support (Mooladhara) at the bottom end of the spine, resides the Kundalini or ‘Coiled One’, thus refered to as the Serpent Power. The Kundalini is none other than the Goddess manifesting within our bodies as the guiding psychospiritual power of our being. In unenlightened, ordinary beings, she lies dormant. The goal of this yoga is to awaken her in the Base Support Center and to cause her to ascend the central axis, breaking through the other centres until she reaches the uppermost center at the top of or slightly above the head, where she unites with her male counterpart, Siva.
This is exactly what takes place in Sahaja Yoga. Sahaja Yoga actualises Kundalini Yoga.
In times gone by, to achieve Kundalini Yoga the aspirant had to go through penances or tapas, to purify and gain understanding, and then mastery of the different aspects of their nature. Eventually, maybe many lifetimes later, the aspirant may encounter a guru who is a yogi, and at the hands of that guru-yogi, attain their self-realisation, meaning the opening of their Sahasrara Chakra through Kundalini awakening. This was a very long process.
When Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, founder and sole guru of Sahaja Yoga, started this work in 1970, She realised that we, the people of this modern, Technological Age, didn’t have the luxury of time on our sides anymore. Through all the advancements we had achieved, and through blindly following the false gurus who had sprung up everywhere like mushrooms, we were destroying our brains and our subtle systems. Our Sahasraras were entangled, over-developed masses of nerves, our chakras and nadis torn, shrivelled and disconnected.
So for a jet age people, a jet age process was devised by Shri Mataji, and this system She named Sahaja Yoga. In this process the Kundalini is awakened “sahaja” which means spontanaeously (click on the image on the left, to see a demonstration of the kundalini rising). To use the analogy of skyscrapers, this process takes us up to the penthouse in one swift and beautiful moment. We are then given the tools to understand both the vista and the floors below. Then, armed with this knowledge, we have to correct our own chakras and nadis and thereby bring about balance in our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies, synthesising them into a complete whole.
Greta More
When you meditate, try not to … make some sort of a function out of it. No. Meditation is something silencing yourself, silencing your thoughts and the going to that deep ocean which is within you…
But supposing you don’t do that; if you don’t meditate, I can make out immediately those who are meditating and those who are not – it’s not difficult for me. Those who do not meditate are always hesitating; they are confused; they can’t understand.
And that’s why meditation is the most important thing in Sahaj Yoga. Just like a light burns, in the electricity flowing in it, you can say, or … because of the candles, in the same way meditation is a continuous availability of the Divine force.
Shri Mataji, 2002
On 14 October 2006 the opening premiere of the movie about the life and work of Shri Mataji, “Freedom and Liberation”, took place in the ARRI movie theatre in Munich. Munich is an important film production point in Germany, and hosts more companies producing technical film equipment than Hollywood.
Carolin Dassel, the writer and director of the movie, has worked relentlessly for the last two years to realize this incredible piece of work, based on the idea of Philip Zeiss. Carolin started the first shooting in September 2003 in Cabella with her film crew. This included a two-hour interview with Shri Mataji and her husband, Sir CP Srivastava, in the Palazzo Doria Castle. It was literally the last public interview that Shri Mataji gave. Then Carolin and her team shot for several weeks in India in Ganapatipule, Pune, Delhi, the Sahaja Yoga health centre in Vashi, and many more places. Interviews with Shri Mataji’s daughters, Kalpana and Sadana, give us a very personal glimpse of the family life of Shri Mataji.
The film was produced on state-of-the-art professional standard (Super 16mm) film to ensure maximum quality, with some inserts shot in Super8 black and white. The film also includes some original footage of Shri Mataji’s talks on video.
Together with Sepp Reidinger, head of several technical departments at ARRI Munich, the production company, DEVI-Film, was set up at the beginning of production. Funding for the film came from the Film and TV Fund of Bavaria, the public TV program, Bayerischer Rundfunk, and the Munich Film Academy where Carolin graduated with this film.
With the support of Sepp Reidinger, the film premiere was held in the prestigious ARRI cinema in the heart of Munich. An audience of about three hundred people waited eagerly for the movie to start. The audience greatly enjoyed the film, and some were deeply touched.
After the screening Thomas Menge, who hosted the event, introduced Carolin who called the crew and some of the interviewed people on stage. After that, Thomas led a small program for the remaining audience of about one hundred people who had the chance to get their self-realisation. Many of them actually felt the cool breeze.
The official TV screening was held on 22 October 2006 on Bayerischer Rundfunk, the third program of Public German Television.
More information is available on the official website (for the time being in German), www.nirmaladevi-film.de.