The Blessings of the Sun

Surya Narayana, Basohli.

If you are absolutely effortless, meditation will work the best. Do not think about your problems at all. Just expose yourself to the vibrations. When the sun shines, all of nature exposes itself to the sun and receives the blessings of the sun effortlessly. It does not put in any effort. It just receives the sun. The sun’s rays start acting. In the same way, the all-pervading power starts working. You are not to maneuvre it. You are not to do anything about it. Just be effortless, absolutely effortless. It will go on working as long as it can and it will do the miracle that it has to do. You do not have to worry about it. It knows its job, but when you put an effort, you actually create a barrier for it. So no effort is needed. Be absolutely effortless, and say, “Let it go, let it go. “ That’s all.

-Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

Shri Virata

On the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Lord Krishna appeared to Prince Arjuna as Vishwarupa, the universal form, all that is. All the worlds, deities, sages, and peoples appeared within this total form of Lord Vishnu. Another word for this omni-form is Virata. 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has explained that the Virata is the integrated brain and nervous system of the Divine, which can be awakened within us. It is the totality. It is everything that exists, the body of the Cosmos. It is also reflected within each human being as the subtle system of chakras and energy channels.

Aquarius and Kundalini

"Lay a virtuous path. 

Teach goodness. 

Feel the Shakti flowing within you."

- Shri Mataji, Sankranti 2008

The Shakti, the manifest power of the all-pervading Divine Self, can be felt within as the Kundalini energy. 

The Kundalini corresponds to the astrological sign Aquarius. Aquarius is depicted by a figure pouring out water from a vessel (Kumbha in Sanskrit) but it also represents the release of spiritual energy.

Aquarius by Jake Baddeley
jakebaddeley.com

Inner Being

Deborah Stevenson, Time out of Mind, paper collage.
Image used with kind permission of the artist.
See more of her work at deborahstevenson.com

Try to meditate. 

Meditate more, so that you reach that inner being. 

And this inner being is the vast ocean of bliss 

which exists inside every one of us.

-Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, 1983

According to several Indian teachings, including that of Guru Nanaka, the founder of the Sikh religion, the inner Self and the universe "outside" are one and the same. No part of the infinite cosmos, with all it's countless swirling galaxies, is outside the ambit of who you are.

One of the main obstacles to meditation is the mind's objection to being quietened - something it tends to see as a form of limitation. However, contrary to the mind's expectations, genuine states of meditation are characterised by a sense of expansiveness in consciousness; something Buddhists call the Vast Mind.

The poet and translator, Patricia Donegan, uses the composition and reading of the Japanese Haiku form as an awareness practice, a means of realising the Vast Mind. In her book, Haiku Mind, she writes: "to create and appreciate this tiny form of poetry, one needs a vast mind like the sky." 

Meditation

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi on meditation.
Image by Graham Brown, 2014.

Phra Mae Thorani

Phra Mae Thorani is a Thai and Laotian Earth Mother goddess sometimes depicted beneath images of the Buddha. 

The water she wrings from her hair represents detachment, which drowns the demons sent to distract the Buddha from attaining enlightenment.

The Buddha is often depicted with one hand touching the Earth, as a sign that he is seeking the Mother's aid in attaining liberation. This Earth-touching gesture is called the Bhumisparsha Mudra, and signifies the moment when the Demon Mara (delusion) challenged the Buddha's right to gain enlightenment. Mara claimed that his own spiritual achievements surpassed those of the Buddha, and his countless demon soldiers attested to this. The Buddha, in turn, called on the Mother Earth to attest to his worthiness. The testimony of a deity as important as the Earth Goddess trumped that of Mara's army.

Reading about The Buddha's use of the Mother Earth reminded me of the importance of regularly sitting on the ground (weather permitting). It gives a firm foundation to one's meditative practice, and an 'earth', in the electrical sense, for superfluous or unbalanced energies in the body and mind.
While sitting on the ground you can respectfully ask the Mother Earth to remove your physical and spiritual problems. This is something Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has recommended.

The Self as Enjoyer

He is spirituality itself. He is beyond all these things. 

Whether you are a musician or you are an artist; whatever it is you are, He will enjoy, 

as He is the enjoyer.

And He will enjoy whatever is simple, whatever is given with the heart, He will enjoy. Whatever is expressed with the heart He will enjoy. 

- HH Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Shivaratri 2003

Shri Shiva and His family by Raja Ravi Varma, vintage print.

Shri Shiva is the Universal Self, residing in the heart, the Enjoyer of Creation.

Today is Shivaratri, the Hindu festival devoted to Lord Shiva.

Shri Durga

We are presently at the culmination of Navaratri, a nine night festival dedicated to Shri Durga, the fiercely protective Mother Goddess, who defeated the demonic forces threatening her children: the gods and human beings.

"The greatest thing is the blessings of the Mother, the way She looks after you, the way She loves you and the way She cares for you, which you should never take for granted. You must meditate, it's very important. No question, without meditation you can't keep yourself all right, it's no question. Meditation is the most important thing which must be followed, because that's how you come close to Her vibrations, come to Her nature."

-Shri Mataji Nirmal Devi, Navaratri 2002

Sir C.P. Srivastava Remembered.

I was saddened to learn that Sir C.P. Srivastava passed away this week, aged 93. 

I had the privilege of meeting him when he visited Australia with his wife, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, founder of Sahaja Yoga, a unique method of meditation based on the experience of Self-realisation. 

The longest serving Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organisation, Sir C.P will be remembered for his visionary and pioneering role and his ceaseless efforts in the establishment of IMO’s global educational institutions.

C.P. Srivastava was born on 8 July 1920 and was educated in Lucknow, India (obtaining BA, MA and LLB degrees). He started his career as a civil servant in the Indian Administrative Service in India, serving as the district administrator in Meerut and Lucknow, and then went on to the post of Joint Secretary to the Indian Prime Minister's office of the late Lal Bahadur Shastri from 1964 to1966.

Awards and conferments given Dr Srivastava include: a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, the International Maritime prize, the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration and Management Sciences, and the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award, by the President of India.

Sir C. P. has stated that his life has been greatly influenced by his wife and he has been motivated by her vision of the unity of the Divine and the human family. This vision motivated him in all aspects of his life. He is survived by two daughters.

Imagination

“Most people have no imagination. If they could imagine the sufferings of others, they would not make them suffer so.”

- Anna Funder, All That I Am.

I've just finished reading Anna Funder's brilliantly researched novel: All That I Am, which traces the lives of a group of anti-Hitler activists in exile who gradually become aware that they are not beyond the reach of Nazi cruelty. The book suggests that the sufferings imposed by Hitler's regime were due to a vast and tragic failure of the human imagination. The watercolours Hitler produced whilst attempting an art career are evidence of this.

The line I've quoted from Funder's novel led me to contemplate the art of imagining, and the act of putting oneself in the shoes of another person. 

With that in the back of my mind, I began searching for another book to read, I randomly picked up an autobiography of the poet William B Yeats, The Unicorn, W. B. Yeats' Search for Reality, by Virginia Moore. I dipped into the book, also at random, and by strange coincidence, on the page I opened, the word 'imagination' appeared several times. Moore was exploring William Blake's influence on the philosophy and work of Yeats, specifically Blake's championing of the quality of Imagination (he was fond of capitalising abstract nouns, probably to lend importance to, or to personify, the qualities they signify).

Blake saw Imagination not as a silly realm of fictive irrelevance, but as something vital to the very existence of human beings, a divine gift awakened by Jesus in particular. He saw the growing rationalism of the European mind as a force smothering the capacity for imagination.

From the perspective of yoga, with its system of chakras, as elucidated by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, imagination is a quality of the Agnya Chakra (or brow centre), opened on a cosmic level by Jesus. This is not to say that only Christians are capable of empathy; in fact Europe, the seat of Christendom, has seen some of the worst persecutions of the 'other' in the history of the world.

At the Sahasrara Chakra (or crown centre), which is the next step in the evolution of consciousness, the universal Self is realised. After Self-realisation, a person not only can imagine themselves in the situation of another person; they actually share Selfhood with that person, transcending the duality of 'me' and 'other' in a single cosmic Self. Imagination becomes Reality.

"The imagination is not a state: it is the human existence itself."
-William Blake

The Source of Joy

Man in his search of joy and happiness is running away from his Self, which is the real source of joy.
-Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

Emptiness and Joy

"To enjoy Sahaja Yoga, in Niranand (absolutely without anything else but joy) then one has to know that he should give up all the myths with which he is living. All kinds of myths there are. Some people have myths: “We are very poor”. Some have myths: “We are very rich”. Some have this thing that “We are very unhappy”. Some have that “We are very happy”. All kinds of myths these are. These are all myths. What is the thing is the complete emptiness; complete emptiness. That is joy. This emptiness is filled with joy. Complete emptiness. Then you don’t expect anything from anyone. And this emptiness from within, it actually gives chance to compassion and love to enter into you. Supposing there is something in a pot already, what can you pour into it? What can you give into it? So if you are completely empty within, there’s nothing of this nonsense of the past and the future: the aspirations, the ambitions, all those things, and falsehood. If you just become empty, it is filled in with nothing but joy, and joy of such a eternal nature. You never asked for it; you do not look forward to it. It is there, all the time. And this is what I wish today you people can feel it: the quality is of compassion and love, fearlessness and courage and the complete emptiness. In this emptiness, then, you are not worried about what you have to achieve."

- Shri Mataji's Navaratri talk 1994

The Passing of Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

H.H. Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, founder of the worldwide meditation movement called Sahaja Yoga, passed away peacefully on 23rd February, 2011 in Genoa, Italy, aged 87. 

Hers was a life unlike any other. Whether walking with kings or walking barefoot with Gandhi, it was a journey of extremes managed effortlessly, living as she did with grace, dignity and, always, loving guidance. 

Born of a royal dynasty, she conferred as a child with Mahatma Gandhi, living for a time in his ashram, was a medical student and a freedom fighter, was an adored mother, grandmother, great grandmother and the wife of a distinguished diplomat who himself was decorated by the kings and presidents of innumerable countries and knighted by the Queen of England. But incredibly, after all this, with her family grown and settled, she then embarked on an even more extraordinary mission. 

Shri Mataji was born to Christian parents in India. Spiritually enlightened, she knew from very early on that her unique spiritual gift must be made available to everyone. And so it was that in 1970 she founded Sahaja Yoga meditation, which she shared freely. Using simple techniques, she discovered a unique process of Self Realisation through which huge masses of people could easily achieve the peace of true meditation. She charged no money, and instead insisted this was a birthright which should be available to all who desired it, at no cost. She said “There can be no peace in the world until there is peace within”.

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Materialism

"Actually to be materialistic, in the real sense,
is that we understand the value of matter.
And the value of matter is aesthetics:
artistic things, real artistic things.
And beyond that, the value of matter
is that you can give love to others."

-Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, Wimbledon, UK, 1986

The Mantra for Overcoming Ego

"Just say 'I forgive, I forgive', and you can overcome your ego."


-Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi 

40th Sahasrara Day

The Celestial Rose, Illustration to Dante's Paradiso

Today is the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Sahasrara Chakra of the Virata, by Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi.

"(Sanskrit: सहस्रार, Sahasrāra) is the seventh primary chakra according to Hindu tradition. Often referred as thousand-petaled lotus, it is said to be the most subtle chakra in the system, relating to pure consciousness, and it is from this chakra that all the other chakras emanate. When a yogi is able to raise his or her kundalini, energy of consciousness, up to this point, the state of Samādhi, or union with God is attained."

- Wikipedia

Maya

This is Maya (Illusion).

She has been intentionally created.

Without her, the attention would not have developed.

You should not be afraid of Maya

and should recognize Her

so that She will illuminate your path.

A cloud hides the sun and also makes it seen.

In the same way, once the Maya is identified,

she moves aside and the sun is seen.

The sun is always there,

but what is the purpose of the cloud?

Because of the cloud, you have an urge to see the sun,

which shines for a moment and again hides somewhere.

-HH Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

From the experience of bliss for a long time, there arose in the Supreme Self a certain state like deep sleep. From that state Maya (the illusive power of the Supreme Self) was born, just as a dream arises in sleep. This Maya is without the characteristics of (or different from) Reality or unreality, without beginning, and dependent on the Reality that is the Supreme Self. She, who is of the form of the Three Gunas (the qualities or energies of Nature), brings forth the Universe with all its animate and inanimate things.

-Shri Shankaracharya (probably 788–820 CE)

Selbsttodtung

"The true philosophical Act is annihilation of self (Selbsttodtung); this is the real beginning of all Philosophy; all requisites for being a Disciple of Philosophy point hither. This Act alone corresponds to all the conditions and characteristics of transcendental conduct."

-Novalis (Friedrich Von Hardenberg)

"Ego is absolutely superficial like a bubble. It is just like a balloon, which can burst just like that. And it should go. It should go so that you should rise. It should disappear so that your attention rises in your Spirit. And that you see the whole world as a part of that Spirit that you are."

-Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

Selbsttodtung does not mean suicide; it is the dissolution of an illusory self produced by ego and superego. There is nothing violent or even destructive about this act, because that which is annihilated is already non-existent.

you are not your ego

When you are fighting the nature the ego develops within you. And then once that momentum has started in you it is very difficult to bring it down. It is such a terrible disease that people have taken it for granted that that’s a part of their lives. You are not your ego. You are not.
- Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

1978, Agnya Chakra

Shri Ganesha

So Ganesha is the killer of ego,
because humility is the only thing
that really can neutralize your ego.

-Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi
Madras (Chennai) 1991