Sahaja Yoga Meditation in the USA

In “The Concise Sanskrit-English Dictionary”, the one who practices yoga is called a “yogin”, which is translated as “ascetic”. In the yogic tradition, it was considered impossible to attain a state of higher awareness, the complete awareness of oneself and of one’s Creator, unless one gave up all worldly attachments — material goods, all relationships, all likes and dislikes. The body had to be subjected to great discomforts to break the love of comfort and food. The overriding characteristic of a yogin was purity. The yogin had no other goal in life than the state of complete yoga, or enlightenment.

What Shri Mataji has achieved is an unprecedented method where the same result is possible but all the traditional “rules” are broken. One does not have to make any effort to become an ascetic in outward behavior. By practicing Sahaja Yoga Meditation on a daily basis, one’s thoughts and feelings become pure. It just happens as a by-product of clearing the mind of useless thoughts. One can become a true yogi while having a spouse, children, a house, material possessions, a job, and while enjoying an active and enjoyable life. One can enjoy bowling, tennis, watercolor painting, and still be competely “one with reality”, if one is not attached to anything, if the enjoyment of the moment affirms and strengthens the connection with reality.

In “The Concise Sanskrit-English Dictionary” by Vasudeo Govind Apte, “yoga” is defined as “union; contact; conveyance; use; fraud; work; religious meditation; a rule; zeal; result.”

In “Sahaja Yoga” the meaning intended is “union”. Our separation from reality, from the divine, is transformed in Sahaja Yoga Meditation, to a state of union, or connection, with reality.

In India this is understood. People go to a Sahaja Yoga meeting in India intending to meditate. But in the West, “yoga” means mats and stretches. In the traditional Patanjali yoga system (Ashtanga yoga), there are eight parts that make up the whole of “yoga”. The physical part, the “hatha yoga” part, is one of the parts. The goal of all of the yogic practices is, ultimately, the state of union: a state of complete self-knowledge and awareness of the love of the Creator.

“Our speed has to be brought down. In the West we have become very speedy, no doubt, and to bring down this speed we have to use the meditative process, that we feel our peace within ourselves.”

–Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Founder of Sahaja Yoga Meditation, India, December 12, 1993