Sahaja Yoga Meditation in the USA

We are born with the potential to be great people. Wise. Generous. Loving. The potential exists in every human being. Sometimes, along the way, we lose the ability to fully express our best qualities. I have found, doing Sahaja Meditation, that my latent good qualities start to shine through. One such quality is “leadership”.

What makes a good leader? She inspires and encourages. She empowers others. She always reminds the people on the team that they are on a team. She uses the power of gentle persuasion. She doesn’t bully. She never threatens. She never personally attacks anyone. Mostly the strategy to get something done is cooperation, but some friendly, good-natured, probably humorous competition is used for motivation and “getting the lead out.”

Above all, she has no ego. She takes responsibility for her own mistakes and is quick to forgive the mistakes of others.

The easy, fast-working meditation technique called “Sahaja Yoga Meditation” was created by Mrs. Nirmala Srivastava in India in 1970. It has become a worldwide movement of personal and social transformation. Mrs. Srivastava is usually addressed by the Sanskrit term for Mother (“Shri Mataji”).

Shri Mataji was born in Chhindvara, India on March 21, 1923. In person she has tremendous gravity, wisdom, generosity and a sparkling sense of humor.

Shri Mataji, photographed in New Jersey, U.S.A., July 21, 2005.

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Today across America is a day of giving thanks. The New York Times wrote, let us “acknowledge how much we have and… accept the responsibility of sharing it. This is a nation eager to be called to service and selflessness and humility.” We look forward “with a restored sense of reality and affection and self-recognition.”

And then there’s the celebration and the festivity. The expression of our love for each other. There is the BAKING. Here is our holiday baking — five pecan pies to share with friends and family. The bottom photo shows them after about 30 to 60 minutes of baking.

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Some of us have many “friends”, but we feel we have no true intimacy with anyone.

Some of us are mystified by ourselves. We want to be in charge of our own lives, and not feel like some strange, alien force is controlling us, impelling us to say things we regret and do things that are self-destructive.

Some of us just want to “grow up.” We know we can’t keep blaming our parents or spouses or politicians for our unsatisfying lives. We want to become empowered and confident and start to do the things that really matter.

Each of us can take the next step. We can harness our own will and desire.

It has taken me a long, long time to accept that, even knowing what was really going on inside of me, my friends still want to spend time with me. They still respect, cherish, and love me. After a childhood of emotional impoverishment, I find it an ongoing daily miracle that today I am so loved, respected and adored. After being so closed up and judgmental in my younger days, I can never fully take for granted the transformation in my personality, that I really am capable of giving support, compassion, and wisdom to other people.

All the little steps up, out of the darkness, are all milestones. Any one of them is amazing. Taken together, I am not able to fully articulate the result of all those little steps, but it’s something like ecstasy and bliss. In the state of Sahaja Meditation I am silent, peaceful, content, and secure.

Before I started Sahaja Meditation, I could no more express pure love to someone as will my hair to turn purple. I had no idea what “pure love” was, to begin with. And I was terrified of letting anyone “in”, of letting anyone really know what was happening inside me. (I was convinced it would be horrifying to them to find out about all the inner torment and resentment.)

In Sahaja Meditation, I can say from my personal experiences, our awareness expands and deepens. It becomes subtle and very sensitive. We come to know how we are — for real — inside, and how the people around us are — for real — inside. So now, when I meditate with my friends, there is no need to “tell my secrets”. They are completely aware of my strengths and weaknesses. In the state of meditation, their nervous system, their brain, knows everything about my inner being. And I know everything about them, too. Not the exact content of their thoughts, but I can tell when they are thinking, and when their mind is at rest.

In beautiful surroundings.

I was talking with a friend. We both practice Sahaja Meditation. She’s been practicing it for less than ten years. I’ve been practicing it for over twenty-five years. Sometimes I get frustrated, because, even though I have changed a lot, and am nothing like the person I was before I started meditating, I still aspire to be an even better person: more self-disciplined, more expressive of my love, more productive. I was expressing this frustration with the friend, and she said, “growing slowly is better than going backwards.”

That put it in perspective. We’re talking real growth, real change, not a superficial layer on top of a rotten core. Real change takes time — in some people. The bitter, lonely, friendless, angry, nasty, confused, rudderless, lost soul I used to be, is not the person I am today.

We have developed a consumer culture in which we have likes and dislikes. When we apply that habit of thinking to something we cannot change, like the weather, whatever beauty the day is providing for us is lost to us. We can only think, “It should have been sunnier/dryer/cooler.” We cannot be satisfied with how things are.

In relationships, when we form opinions about the other person, those are based on our reactions, and the source of our reactions are our thoughts. When we realize that our thoughts come only from our ego or from our conditionings, we can ignore our thoughts and start accepting people as they are.

We might use a few simple techniques to enter a state of meditation and quieten the mind, but meditation is not only techniques. There is a kind of “letting go”; Sahaja Yoga Meditation does not require any mental concentration. On the other hand, there is no loss of control; one is completely “in charge” of one’s own meditation. (The ultimate goal, in fact, is more complete self-mastery, self-knowledge, and self-awareness.) Meditation does not involve physical exercises or mental effort.