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Sahaja Yoga Basics |
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Sahaja Yoga Basics
Sahaja Yoga is a form of meditative practice
developed by
Nirmala Srivastava, better known as Mataji or Mother for devotees who
believe she is an avatar of the Adi Shakti, the original divine power.
In 1970 Mataji founded an organization for Sahaja Yoga practitioners
that provided free Yoga
classes
for people who were seeking for the instant and effortless (as it was
claimed) achievement of Self-Awareness. Here lies the main difference
of Sahaja Yoga from other Yoga
systems: Mataji maintains that the blissful state of perfect
consciousness can be achieved immediately, without long-term
preparation and studies. On the other hand, Sahaja Yoga allegedly does
not require one-to-one consultations and supervision of a guru,
exhausting physical exercises and years of abstinence and purification.
As presupposed by the name, Sahaja Yoga is meant to achieve the above
state spontaneously. According to Sahaja Yoga teaching, sincere belief
and regular meditation (on Mataji's photo, for example) lets awaken Kundalini,
the concentration of vital force in every person, and thus open and
clear the chakras, energy bundles situated along the spine. At that,
the signal of enlightenment is the sensation of cool breeze or tickling
on top of the head and above the open palms. However, adversaries of
Sahaja Yoga state that such connection between breezing and the unity
with the Divine is really doubtful; as similar feelings can appear
simply because of perspiration or other factors.
Sahaja Yoga has become rather popular in the modern world due to a
number of reasons. First of all, it offers a relatively easy way of
getting into the super-conscious state; there is no need to attend
numerous Yoga classes or perform sets of Asanas, like in Hatha Yoga.
At that, Sahaja Yoga is said to be able to heal some diseases that are
considered incurable by modern medicine. Indeed, there have been some
reports stating that thanks to Sahaja Yoga the state of some patients
suffering from asthma, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder,
depression and even epilepsy improved to a different extent. However,
it is still questionable if it is only and exactly Sahaja Yoga that
resulted in such recovery.
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