Here are the words of a very old, and much-loved song, translated from the Indian Marathi language. It refers to the life force, the Kundalini, as mother, and begs her to rise up through the system to the Sahasrara and so bring about Self-realisation – the Oneness with the Divine, the Union, the Yoga, the Enlightenment, the Rhu, the Moksha, the Breath of the Holy Spirit.

O Mother Kundalini, You rise, rise, rise!
To kill the evil demons.
O Mother, You rise, rise, rise!
To take away the problems we have, the obstacles,
To take your devotees to their salvation.
Mother we ask for our Self Realization.
Rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, rise, Ho!

I will banish all my  problems
And I will put this garland on Your neck, Mother Kundalini.
In my hand I will take the flag of knowledge,
And get rid of all obstructions.

In the nine nights I will do nine types of worship to You..
I will put all questions and doubts to one side
And ask for the boon that is meditation.
I will give up the father-in-law that’s sitting on my head
Making me a bad boy.

Now I will fill up my little basket
With the complete blooming flowers of knowledge.
And all the bad ideas that come into my mind
I will throw into the sea.

There are two horrible creatures within me.
One is lust and the other is anger.
Theses two horrible creatures I will throw away.
That is how I am going to make my central pathway clean.

I ask my Mother for the Yoga and promise to keep it very safe in my heart.
When I have the Yoga, which I will store very carefully,
I will thank you forever for my second birth..
And fall at the feet of God the Almighty.

(Illustration: www.sahajayoga.ca)

Do you have problems meditating?  Difficulty becoming thoughtless? It could be your liver.

Maybe you’ve gone through the self-realisation process over the Internet and are experimenting with meditating at home. If you’re finding becoming thoughtless difficult here are some things to consider.

It is said that the condition of our liver is very important in our overall health and determines our longevity. The most important function of the liver is to convert fat cells in the brain. Another function is to take the toxins and poisons out of the blood in the form of heat. If there are lots of toxins in the blood, the liver can become overworked and quite hot. In addition, while it is performing this secondary function it is neglecting its primary function of converting the fat cells in the brain. 

People who have hot livers are generally irritable, impatient and angry. This was well known to the ancient Greeks, who described the choleric temperament which referred to people who had poorly functioning livers (too much yellow bile) and consequently quick tempers.

What causes this? In our society a major cause of a hot liver is the consumption of alcohol. Alcohol is a poison which must be cleansed out of the blood by the liver, thereby heating up the liver. Thinking and planning too much can also heat up the liver. If the liver is hot, the attention is often scattered, the person can be restless and unable to settle, and may find it difficult to become thoughtless and to go into meditation. This is because the liver is the “seat of the attention”. 

When we become thoughtless and go into a meditative state we are going into a higher state of awareness. We start out at normal human awareness and achieve a higher level of consciousness when we become thoughtless. Alcohol dulls our consciousness and is a backward step in terms of our awareness, spiritual ascent and evolution. When we experience the joy, peace and contentment of meditation which is infinitely more satisfying, we no longer seek the temporary effects of alcohol. If drinking has become a problem or an addiction, meditating also helps to give it up.

Can anything be done to cool down a hot liver and help it to function better? Sahaja Yoga has many simple techniques to cleanse the negativity from our bodies and to help us meditate. Footsoaking in cool or cold water with some salt is a good way to cleanse and cool down the liver. 

Another way to cool down the liver is to hold a cold pack, a sandwich bag filled with ice cubes, or an old plastic shampoo bottle filled with water frozen in the freezer with the left hand, onto the liver (on the right side over the lower ribs) while footsoaking or just while meditating. (Don’t put the ice straight onto bare skin.  Keep a layer or two of clothing between your skin and the ice.) 

It is also helpful to the liver to stop thinking and planning so much. While meditating, we can surrender our problems to the universal power and say the affirmation, “I do nothing. You solve all my family and money worries and take care of my well-being.” Also, remember that we don’t do anything to go into meditation; it just happens. However, we need to have the desire for it to happen. So, we can say, “Please make me thoughtless. Please take me into meditation”.

As we cleanse and cool down our livers, our meditation improves and we start to feel calmer and more peaceful, and react less to what happens around us in our environment. We feel healthier and happier and see improvements in our relationships. And we are doing something concrete in our lives which will contribute to creating a more harmonious and peaceful world.

Kay Alford

Each of us has, within us, a subtle energy system. This system contains seven major chakras; seven major energy centres.  The power that brings these chakras into full blossom is the life force inside each one of us – the Kundalini.  And when this Kundalini rises from its home at the base of the spine, up through all the other chakras, and enlightens the one at the very top of the head - the Sahasrara - our Self-realisation takes place. Self-realisation - the wonderful transformation seekers of spiritual truth have always longed for.

In the past, this process – this Self-realisation – was achieved individually.  Anyone strongly desiring it would study with a guru or master for a long time – sometimes twenty years and more - clearing each energy centre one by one, until the topmost chakra became enlightened. Sometimes through deep study of God’s creation, or dedicated artistic activity - music, painting, writing - the individual’s attention was brought nearer and nearer to the balance until, eventually, Self-realisation took place.

However, in early May 1970, for the first time, this Sahasrara chakra was opened out, in a universal and collective way,  by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, the founder of Sahaja Yoga.  Since that time, through the practice of Her discovery, thousands upon thousands have gained their connection, their moksha, their enlightenment. 

And now this collective gaining of individual Self-realisation can be very easily achieved through Sahaja Yoga, which was founded by Shri Mataji for just this purpose.

Brian Bell

Angels are born like angels. They are angels and they are not human beings. They’re born with the angelic qualities. But now, you all have become angels from the human beings. It’s a very great achievement of Sahaja Yoga.

The qualities that are born with the angels are seen from their very childhood. Firstly, they are not afraid of untruth, falsehood. They’re not worried as to what people will say to them, on what they will lose in life. To them, truth is their life. They breathe truth. And nothing else matters with them. This is the first great quality of an angel. They will go to any extent to establish truth, to protect and to protect the people who are in truth….

So now you are the same. You are angels now. Only thing, you are not aware that you are angels, while they were aware from their childhood.

If you know that you are angels, all your qualities will start shining through and you’ll be amazed that the quality of standing by the truth at any cost is so easily managed for you because you have been given the right. You have been given the special blessings, the protection from the Divine that if you stand for the right and if you stand for the righteous and if you stand for the truth, all kinds of help to protect you will be given….

But the angels are a special category. They don’t take up any problems upon themselves. They just solve them. If there’s a problem, it’s the angels who solve….

It’s a playfulness of the angels also. Because they’re so confident, they’re so absolutely aware, absolutely identified with their personality, with their powers, with themselves.

Shri Mataji, 1989

School, university, ongoing professional education and life in general regularly present us with the opportunity and challenge of study. This can be stressful and produce anxiety and irritability. Even those who do not have these feelings will often reflect that they are not concentrating as well as they might. There is also the issue of remembering and being able to integrate and use all the new information.

Just as we employ our muscles for moving we utilise our brain for learning. If one wishes to do well in a physical activity then one should exercise regularly and exercise correctly. In sport nothing is more valuable to the sincere athlete than a coach with good methods. This is true at any level of activity, whether it is playing tennis once a week at the local club, having a weekend swim or something as rigorous and demanding as professional football.

So what can be done to make the brain a better tool for learning? First, let us consider some of the typical obstacles. Fatigue, worry and distraction are examples we are all familiar with. The brain is full of chemicals called neurotransmitters that carry messages from one nerve cell to another. They are depleted by activity and renewed by rest. Activity in this case means thoughts and emotions. If a person can preserve his or her mental energy for the task at hand then the job – in this case study – can be done more efficiently.

Meditation is an extremely powerful method for harnessing the brain to get the necessary work done. This is because it quietens and diminishes the rate of thoughts and emotions. When the body needs rest we seek sleep, and during sleep physical activity is slight; if this were not the case we would not wake up refreshed. But even during sleep the mind can remain very active, and so we dream. During meditation the mind has a true respite from its usual activity.

This is achieved by learning how to let go of thoughts. Most of us are aware that thoughts follow each other in rapid, indeed remorseless, succession. Between thoughts there is a tiny gap which is normally imperceptible. In Sahaja Yoga meditation one learns how to open up this gap. This is a space we all have but many of us are unaware of. By becoming attentive to it we find a technique for deeply relaxing the brain.

In this space the obstacles mentioned above simply do not exist. However, awareness is fully present. So, meditation is quite different to trance or hypnosis. It allows the brain to become peaceful and reinvigorated. This is one of the reasons it is so useful for study. Imagine the brain as a knife which is rusty and dull. Meditation both cleans and sharpens the blade. You are then able to cut through problems and enjoy doing so.

Peter