Sahaja Yoga
The annual Bobin Sahaja Weekend will be held on the long weekend, 7-9 June, 2008. Bobin is a lush, rainforested area in the bush of New South Wales, four hours from Sydney, a little north of Wingham and Taree. For directions, see http://maps.google.com.au/ and enter “Bobin NSW”.
Last year we had a great weekend with beautiful vibrations.
On Saturday 7 June, the Enviro Fair will be held in Taree Park, Taree. The Enviro Fair promotes environmental concerns and world music. Sahaja Yoga will be playing a significant part in the Fair’s events. There will be Sahaja Yoga performances on stage about midday, featuring the the music group, “Music of Joy”, dancing and Qawwali music. Sahaja Yoga will also have a spot on the local radio station in the morning. There will be a large Sahaja Yoga tent with meditation, face-painting and mehndi hand-painting.
On Monday 9 June there will be a Sahaja Yoga program in a hall in Wingham, where the film, “Freedom and Liberation” will be shown. Refreshments will be provided after the program.
So, now a New Age has started which is called the Age of Aquarius, meaning the pitcher carrier of spiritual holy water that is the work of Kundalini. (Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi)
Since the 1960s and ’70s there has been much talk about the Aquarian Age, especially due to the song, “Age of Aquarius”, from the musical, “Hair”. The words, “New Age”, refering to the Aquarian Age, have also become commonplace and seem to refer to a wide range of alternative philosophies, music, therapies, meditations, exercises and diets. But what is the real significance of the Aquarian Age?
Western astrological thought indicates that we have just come out of the Piscean Age and have entered the Aquarian Age. Each Cosmic Age lasts about 2,000 years and has its own atmosphere or world view due to the influence of the prevailing zodiac sign on all of the planets during their transit, as well as their configurations and the relationships between them.
Dan Costian PhD, author of “Bible Enlightened”, relates that in each Cosmic Age a new avatar or incarnation of the Divine took birth on the earth in human form in order to reveal another aspect of spirituality to human beings. In the Age of Gemini (c6000 – c4000BC) this Divine incarnation was Rama, in the Age of Taurus (c4000 – c2000BC) it was Krishna, and in the Age of Aries (c2000 – 1BC) it was Abraham, Moses, Zarathustra, Confucius, Lao-Tse and Socrates. In essence, the planets “set the scene” by providing the atmosphere or mood of the time to harmonise with and to reflect the message of the incarnation of the Divine of that Age.
The Age of Pisces extended from about 1AD to about the year 2000. The avatar or incarnation of the divine in this Age was Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The early Christians used the symbol of the fish, the sign of Pisces, in order to recognise each other. The birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem had been foretold by the prophets and was heralded by a star in the East, which guided the Three Wise Men to the baby in the stable.
Various predictions about the date of the beginning of the Age of Aquarius have been made. The Adi Sahasrara, the seventh and last chakra, was opened on 5 May 1970. This cosmic phenomenon was witnessed by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi and she has described it in one of her lectures. This event has paved the way for the spontaneous awakening of the Kundalini energy so that people en masse can receive their Self-realisation, their connection with the Divine. I believe that this is the date of the beginning of the Aquarian Age.
So what can we expect the Age of Aquarius to be like? Eccentricity, originality, independent thought, love of innovation and contempt for tradition are all strong traits of Aquarius. So we can expect that there will be a shake-up of the old order and a questioning of all ideas about society, religion and relationships. This will lead to a search for new ways of being.
This time of questioning started happening in the late 1960s and ’70s when a lot of old ideas, traditions and indoctrinations were examined and thrown out. It led to the sexual revolution, a lot of experimenting with drugs and experimenting with new religions mostly from India, including ones promulgated by false gurus who saw an opportunity to make money. So it had quite a few negative consequences, but it was necessary for people to move beyond the staid, narrow ways of looking at things that had prevailed for some time and to become “seekers of truth”. Under the influence of Aquarius people will not accept what others tell them and like to learn through their own experimentation and experience.
Aquarius encourages the progress of humanitarian and social causes. So the Aquarian Age is one where pure love and altruism prevail. People work selflessly for the good of the whole, without exploiting or manipulating others.
Unity and integration are themes of the Aquarian Age. We can look forward to a truly multicultural world where individual differences are valued and respected while at the same time we are able to work co-operatively for the good of everyone. The sign opposite Aquarius is Leo which has an ennobling and enriching influence.
Originality and innovation are qualities of Aquarius. So we can expect inventiveness and creativity in all spheres of life.
The truth is another important aspect of Aquarius. All falseness and corruption should disappear. The appearance or exterior will be less important while the essence will be of utmost importance.
We can look forward to an end to “blind faith” in religion and to a time when the mystical knowledge that has been hidden and kept secret will be revealed – a time when people will be their own gurus, and know the truth within themselves, with the rising of their Kundalini.
Now very interesting it is to see that this Kundalini is the one which is called as the Kumbha – in Sanskrit language, means the Aquarius. We call it Aquarius, as one of the signs, and is the same as Kumbha in Sanskrit language. So it is the Age of Aquarius, is the Age of the Kundalini. Secondly is the Age of the Kundalini which will nourish, which is the Mother within you, which will rise, will give you the completeness of it, and which will connect you with your Spirit which ultimately gives you the enlightenment by which you become collectively conscious. (Shri Mataji Nirmal Devi, 1983).
All of these positive changes will not happen if we sit back and do nothing. The time is right for them to happen, but we must desire the change and take steps to bring about the change within ourselves. The first step is to desire to have your Kundalini awakening. The second step is to go through the process of attaining Self-realisation. You can do this by going to the link:
Sahaja Yoga Meditation – Self-realisation
The third step is to meditate regularly, preferably with other Sahaja Yogis as the meditation is easier and more powerful in a collective situation. So that means contacting the nearest Sahaja Yoga centre and attending the beginners’ classes, which are always free. By doing this you will be helping all the positive aspects of the true Aquarian Age to manifest on our earth.
Kay Alford
(Photograph: beyondthelookingglass.org)
Musical therapist and teacher of Sahaja Yoga, Celeste Jones, is set to attend the 2008 World Youth Congress in Quebec, Canada. Kurrajong Heights’ Celeste Jones is one of a select group of youths meeting in Canada later this year, to search for ways to combat the many crises facing our modern world.
In August she will join 600 young leaders from throughout the globe, to participate in the fourth World Youth Congress, “ReGeneration 2008”, in Quebec.
The World Youth Congress is a project funded by Peace Child International, which aims to bring together young people from the age of 18 to 30 who have a passion for sustainable development.
A total of 15,000 youths applied to attend this year’s congress.
Delegates will join forces with young Canadians to undertake hands-on community action projects across Quebec.
They will help shape international policy by documenting and showing governments what young people are doing to achieve the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, which include halving poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, promoting gender equality and reducing infant mortality.
Ms Jones, 25, will attend the congress along with a group of friends, as an advocate of Sahaja Yoga.
“A group of us applied as delegates so we put in our application as the Sahaja organisation,” she said.
The group travel internationally teaching Sahaja Yoga meditation techniques, which promotes attributes such as inner balance, peace and “self realisation”.
“It’s just a very simple meditation technique that takes a few minutes, and once you’ve learnt it you can teach anyone,” she said. “Whatever we do is always free — it’s just for other people’s benefit. We get a lot of joy out of it.”
As part of attending the World Youth Congress, Ms Jones and the Sahaja group were asked to submit a development project illustrating the ways her organisation is taking action.
They plan to spend time in Rome working with Gypsies, teaching Sahaja Yoga and musical therapy, and helping them re-establish their cultural roots by empowering the youth.
But the project is just one of many for Ms Jones and her friends, who have established meditation programs around the world.
“A lot of my other friends, they live in all different countries,” she said. “They organise various events and then we go and join them and do all sorts of things.”
The trip to Canada will be her second encounter with the World Youth Congress.
Ms Jones is a trained musician and musical therapist as well as an accomplished artist, and attended the last congress in Scotland three years ago as a cultural performer.
For the 2008 World Youth Congress Ms Jones has applied as a delegate, which will give her a greater role in the discussions and decisions made at the event.
For more information on the World Youth Congress, go to www.wyc2008.qc.ca
By Tegan Osborne, Hawkesbury Courier
We are aware that the Paramchaitanya [All-pervading Power] does everything. At least mentally we know that everything is worked out by the grace of the Paramchaitanya, which is the power of the Adi Shakti [Primordial Power]. But still, it is not so much in our heart, so much in our attention.
We can consider the Paramchaitanya lika an ocean, like an ocean which contains everything within itself … Everything is within its own limits, so it cannot be compared with a limit. You cannot compare it.
Now if you see the sun, then from the sun, the rays have to come out to work it. If you see somebody – say, a person who has an authority – he has to assert that power outside. So within himself, he doesn’t work it out.
For example, if there’s a seed and, inside the seed, only the tree grows and the fruits come out and then they are sold and people eat them and everything is inside that seed, then that is the Paramchaitanya.
So we are all enveloped in it … We are on the waves, so we see it as dislocated, separated – like we feel, “This is Germany” or “This is England” or “This is India”. These are just folds of the sari of Paramchaitanya, which look separated, but they are not separated. They are continuous. So the connection is absolutely complete. if I pull a thread from here, the thread will throughout be pulled.
In the same manner, this Paramchaitanya is working within itself and there is nothing without.
So when you are Sahaja Yogis, it pays special attention to you … It becomes absolutely one with you. Whatever you desire, whatever you want also will be coming from the same Paramchaitanya, if you are one with it.
Like in a turbulent ocean, some drops of water may fly into the air and start thinking, “We are above. We are away from the world, away from the ocean.” But again, they have to fall into the same.
So this formless energy has all the intelligence, all the coordination, all the organisations, all the computers, all the televisions, all that you can think of as communication and of governing, of administration. And, above all, it is the love. It is the love of God and love of your Mother. So to be one with this Paramchaitanya, you have to know that you have to become reality …
So all of you Sahaja Yogis have to know that, in reality, you do not do anything and everything is done by the Paramchaitanya. This is the difference between a non-Sahaja Yogi and a Sahaja Yogi. A non-Sahaja Yogi does not know. And even if he knows, this is not the truth in his heart. It’s not a part and parcel of his being. But a Sahaja Yogi knows that reality is the Paramchaitanya and it is reality that works out everything – and this reality is Divine Love.
Shri Mataji, 1989