When we think of “self realisation” it’s easy to imagine it to mean the achievement of our highest dreams, or perhaps a deeper awareness of ourselves. And even though we do strive for these things, our results are usually limited by what we, as humans, can achieve. So to get beyond, something extra has to happen. This is where tapping into a higher state of consciousness comes in.
But how? People have been asking this question for ages… since it’s really not that easy to achieve this on our own.
But it is possible, and the mechanism is already there within us in the form of a nurturing, mothering energy known as kundalini. Having this energy is like having a seed inside, dormant but ready to sprout. You may have heard the word ‘kundalini’ before, as it’s often tossed about in new age circles by people who’ve explored the yogic tradition. But reading about it and experiencing it are different things and some who talk about it may not have had a genuine experience of it.
Some say, for example, that when this energy rises it should be like fireworks, that a person then gets supernatural powers but it’s not like that at all. Like any natural living process it’s much more subtle than that, like when a flower blooms, it’s not like fireworks. The rising of the kundalini is a natural process, and so the experience should feel natural too.
When this energy rises it’s very gentle, and the way we feel it is through a soft cool sensation at the top of our head, and also on the palms of our hands. It then, in a completely compassionate way, gradually balances our system through our meditations. Like swimming, you only know what it’s really like after you’ve felt it. And as you experience it again and again your awareness becomes more subtle also.
Kundalini, in Sanskrit, simply means coiled energy. According to the tradition this energy lies dormant in the sacrum bone at the base of our spine. In Latin sacrum means ‘sacred’ or ‘holy’. When this energy awakes it rises up along our spine and out the top of our fontanel bone. The word fontanel comes from the French ‘fontanele’ meaning little spring or fountain. So we have a sacred bone at the base of our spines, and a fountain bone at the top of our heads, whose idea was that?
The experience of self realization has it’s roots in the tradition of meditation going back thousands of years. Other words for self realisation are moksha, liberation or second birth and it’s the same as what the Buddha experienced when he achieved his enlightenment. Words that describe the state itself are mental silence, throughtless or doubtless awareness, nirvana or samadhi.
So we all have the potential to experience this built within. ‘Sahaja’ means spontaneous, and ‘yoga’ means to unite or ‘yoke’ the individual consciousness with the higher all pervading self. So Sahaja Yoga meditation is completely natural and spontaneous way of connecting our individual consciousness with the whole through meditation.
How is Sahaja Meditation different?
Well it doesn’t make false promises and it doesn’t charge money for the experience. By giving the experience of self realisation freely at the start people are then free to grow through their own efforts.
Because most of us are not like the Buddha, with our complex lives and so many distractions, we may not have time to sit under a tree waiting. But Shri Mataji, in developing this method, wanted to give everyone the opportunity to experience self realization. She realised that if a small amount of energy can pierce through the fontanel bone at the start, a person will then know what it feels like (and what to aim for) and with this understanding they can become their own teacher. In that way they needn’t pay money to someone else, or read a book, to ascend.
Why do we meditate? Well it feels amazing. It relaxes and calms our systems, improves our health and enables us to feel more balanced throughout the day. It also helps us to see ourselves more objectively and correct any mental, emotional or physical imbalances we have. It gives us the opportunity to rise above our mental limits and experience something higher. As Shri Mataji said “you cannot know the meaning of your life until you are connected to the power that created you”. This meditation connects you with that power gently and naturally through giving the gift of self realisation.