Lecture on Meaning of Yoga

“Saha” means with; “Ja” means born, Sahaja, is something that is born with you, that is innately built in you that sprouts by itself in you, which manifests itself. Like you can see a seed sprouting into a tree. This is what is Sahaja.

Now all other Yogas, which go along with it are part and parcel of Sahaja-Yoga. They cannot be separated from this yoga. I think the people have misunderstood that there are four limbs of Yoga.

That would be a misunderstanding as to think that they are separate or different. When we say that we have eaten this food, it does not mean that like a bolt it has gone inside the body and passed out of the body like a bolt coming out. Does it ? It means that you tasted the food in your mouth; it means that it has secreted some saliva in the mouth, later on, it has passed through the trachea, esophagus, going down into the stomach part and then to the intestines and then to the larger intestines. All this movement along this passage is done through the other kind of the movement which is existing in the organs itself like the stomach itself pushing it down, coming from your brain. The sympathetic and parasympathetic coming into play and working it out. It is a big system and the organization that is working it out.

Now if you want to separate it; that the digestive system is different, the respiratory system is different, and your heart system is different, other brain system or nervous system is different, I mean you can’t take it out like that, your brain hanging on one side and your digestive system hanging on the other. It is one integrated form of organization which is a living organization, which understands each other, which reacts to the demands. You cannot separate the system, but as it is, our brains are so disintegrated or they are good at that disintegrating everything within us and without that we want to disintegrate the living thing which is Yoga.

Yoga is not a dead organization. It is a living process. Absolutely a living process. When it is a living process, you cannot do anything about it. So it is Sahaja. At the most you can shift it a little bit and push it here or there, push it around and all that. If a tree is coming up, like in Japan, and they will like to give it a shape, then they will cut branch first and bend it a little more another one and bend it this way, that way and give it a shape. But whatever is living is working out spontaneously within us with many complicated organizations which are living themselves and are aware of what they are doing. For example your body is much more aware of me than your rationality. Say, you are a possessed person. You won’t accept that you are a possessed person. I won’t say myself also because I don’t want to get very kind of thing which is in stock there. I know human beings, that if you tell them something like that you could be out for any sort of trouble. So I don’t tell you. But the body knows me and when you come before me, the whole body shakes. Because it is a living body, it knows me-, it is not a dead body.

So whatever is living, is so well looked after, so well organized and in a living way which we do not understand because we deal with the dead. Suppose I have to start this instrument then I have to know that there must be a cord that I have to put to the mains. I always say that Sahaja Yoga is like that; you take out your cord and put it to the mains. But do you think it is that simple ? You believe that ? That you just pull out the Kundalini and put to the mains? No, it is not. When the sprouting of the Kundalini starts, when awakening starts it passes through the various centres. How will you explain the Kundalini which is at the base of your spinal cord rising upward ? Now, If I tell you that this is even more complicated than your digestive system, that the Kundalini which is an energy as we call it and which thinks, understands and loves you and knows each and everything about you in this life and lives before. If she is so capable, she knows everything then she is entity by itself. And if it has to come up to your head, is it easy ?

It is the most difficult thing. If you have a stone lying somewhere, you can pick it up and throw it anywhere you like. Even if there is a little worm it knows how to get out of the way of a big bull coming round. And if a bull, if it sits somewhere, impossible to raise it. You try your level best. There are some very drastic methods for that in India. You have to burn some red chilies and put that smoke in the nose of the bull, like that. Then only the bull will rise. Otherwise you try anything it won’t rise. It will be settling itself nicely on the ground.

So you come across such bulls also. Sometimes it happens like that. But to make this Kundalini, which thinks, which understands, is the individual mother of an individual which has been born with you all the time, who knows all about you and who loves you most and She is ‘the one who is going to give you the realization, your second birth. She is your mother. This kind of a Kundalini that exists within us must be the most difficult person to rise. Has to be. That is why people say, Kundalini raising is very difficult.

So one has to find the methods of how to make the bull rise. Because this Kundalini is “absolute Dharma” righteousness, absolute purity, ideal-most personality that you could think of, which does not tolerate any nonsense.

She is Nirmala you can call Her. She is Purity personified. She does not accept any nonsense, no compromise She is within you. See how beautiful you are. She is not afraid of anyone, cannot be enticed, enchanted or tempted by anything. She Loves but Her Love is that pure that nothing is higher for Her than her own love. She cannot reconcile to anything. And she is the one who is going to give you your self-realization.

So, for human beings who desire to raise Kundalini, they have to find out methods of pleasing Her. What makes Her so unhappy ? Why doesnt She rise ?

They have to find out the means and methods. And as a result of that probe has brought forth other Yogas, which we call as Raj-Yogaor they call it as Hatha-Yoga, or the third one they call as Kriya Yoga (1 think Kriya and Raj is about the same) and Bhakti Yoga and Gyan Yoga and Karam Yoga. All these are the methods human beings want to employ to make the bull rise. When they get frustrated, they want to hang themselves by the nearest tree. So, that also is another frustrated Yoga. Then Sadistic Yoga, then beating Yogas, then beating others Yogas then it goes on like that, you see, flowering into better and better things. Then fanaticism, because human beings find it difficult to sit still they get a challenge. “Oh this bull does not rise, I will make it rise.”

Moreover they haven’t got the authority. Even those who are self-realized they have no knowledge because Kundalini is not made by them. Like, even if I get this machinery, I do not know how to handle it, how to use it? I may try but I may burn my hands instead. Such a hotch potch of endeavor brings forth so many Yogas in this world. And everybody is baffled at it that how it is that there are so many Yogas and this Yoga and that Yoga and Buddha or Mahabir or Christ. Then Church Yoga “And what is wrong in witchcraft” somebody said the other day. Nothing wrong but the bull will settle down better, it won’t rise then.

Now, so they have tried to find out what should we do ? Stand on your heads, bull won’t rise, it won’t. So what should we do ?

We should know what is the Kundalini that is within us. All these Yogas that have come up, have been depicted from the experiences of people. Because some people when they try to raise the Kundalini “so called” say they started jumping. The Kundalini does not rise. Some people started taking off their clothes or may be some such sort of a funny thing. They felt heated u p. So people thought let us take off our clothes and we’ll find God. Some people felt some sort of a grip on the stomach or some of them did see also these things happening within. So they called it a Moolbandha. The ‘bandha’ has taken place, something has gripped there. So the KriyaYoga is that, you take out your tongue from here. You cut this thread of the tongue from here and you push it back here, touch the tip of the tongue here where normally it is wagging. Push it back here at the Vishuddhi centre, they think the Vishuddhi is here. The problem is that they think the Vishuddhi is here. So they push it back here. They think they will achieve the raising of Kundalini by this. It is just the other way round, we are trying, you see. The effect cannot reach the cause.

You have to go to the root of cause to come to the effect. Did you see my point ? Supposing the Vishuddhi Chakra which is here, a very subtle centre behind, is spoilt then the effects are felt, say, here. And your tongue gets affected, your eyes get effected, your nose gets affected, your cheeks get affected, There are 16 you see. All these can get affected. But by tickling your nose you do not touch the Vishuddhi Chakra. Isn’t it ? Did you see my point ? For example , something goes wrong at the centre from where the electricity is coming here. By tickling it here you cannot correct that one there. You have to go to the roots. Or on a tree you find a fruit. All the fruits are getting rot. So by treating the fruit, can you treat the disease ? Youll have to go to the roots. So these people when they saw things happening to human beings they formed different type of methods. All are wrong and all are right.

Try to understand, this is a very simple thing. After realization all of them are right. Before realization all of them are wrong, Before your car starts, if you start turning the wheel, or using the brake, you are spoiling the car. When the car has started and you know how to drive and you have become a master of driving, then everything is right. Otherwise the same car which has to drive you from your house to this Ashram will land to somewhere. In the same way, the same thing before realization has no meaning. After realization only you start understanding.

So let us take the case of Hatha Yoga. It is based on centres, no doubt. It is based on “lshwar Pranidhana”, no doubt, all the Ashtangas, all the eight sides of Hatha Yoga. See from human point of view, I’m saying. For them why Hatha Yoga came into being.

It’s first that they should fix their attention on Ishwara Pranidhana means they should fix the attention into the existence of God. Not blind faith. But to understand that there is God, so that you humble down yourself. Then you should go to the realized soul as a Guru. Guru means a realized soul minimum. Any Tom, Dick and Harry becomes a, Guru, is a nonsense absolutely. He has to be a realized soul and if he is a realized soul he will say like that.

He doesnt talk of separation, he talks of authority, because he is there he has that authority. Those who talk of separation and crying and weeping and woes and all that are blind like all others. They have no business to be there There is no humility about it, I mean if I have a red shawl, I should say, ‘I have a red shawl.’ What is there to feel humble about ? I mean whatever you are, there is no harm in saying what you are. When you are not that, when you don’t have that and you say that you have, it is arrogance. But when you are there, you have to say. That Christ said, ‘I am the light, I am the path’. I mean he was not trying to be arrogant about it. What is there to feel bad about it ? So Hatha Yoga itself is done under a person who is a realized soul. Not only realized but who knows. Who has mastered the art of Shakti-pat is the raising of the Kundalini minimum. Of course Sahaja Yogis just raise it like that. It is different. But no other Yogis can do that. It is only you, because you are authorized, that you can raise the Kundalini just like that. So what these Hatha-Yogis have done they have boiled it down to only the physical sense. So you have to have Ishwarapranidhana, Yama and Niyama and that too before 25 years of age, you have to discipline yourself in a way that you should understand, what is right and what is wrong. Now those who have done all the wrongs of the world before they are 15 years of age, now at the age of 25 are trying to learn what is Yama and Niyama. How can you do it ? Just tell me now. Supposing you have spoilt the car completely. At the most you can ask for insurance, if you have paid for it. But how can you expect the car to come out absolutely new, as if it has come out from the factory ? A house which is being completely mutilated cannot be renovated. Isn’t it ? That would be madness. So one has to understand that these Yama and Niyamas and all these things are not meant for us. At least for the Western people, in any way. Let us accept it whatever it is in experimentation or whatever it is we have committed lots of mistakes or may be we have been experimenting, again I’ll say the same word. Whatever we have done we have done a lot of harm to ourselves, to our body and to our mind. Because we had nobody to guide us. Alright. We didn’t want to harm ourselves but by mistake it happened. Now what to do ?

It is a very sad affair. People are sick. They cannot do Hatha-Yoga. The atmosphere is sick. The whole place is sick. They want love, they do not want exercise. They do not want scouts. They want somebody to love them, to heal them, to cure them to establish them.

There is no word of love in Hatha Yoga these days because you pay for it. One thing you cannot pay for is your love. How can you pay for love ? And that’s why this modern Hatha Yoga is just a misnomer. But after realization you can do Hatha Yoga because you are purified, you are cleansed, you are healed, your wounds are alright. People are wounded, they are so much hurt. They are extremely unhappy. You touch them and feel it. Why talk about big things when they do not even have energy to sustain themselves ? It is a strain on them. And none of them are realized souls neither are they masters of Shakti-pat. So that’s why it was said, “you go to a Guru who is a realized soul. Go into the jungles before 25 years of age you should be there and practice under his guidance in complete celibacy in the atmosphere of complete celibacy.

Now come to Kriya Yoga. When we take to Kriya Yoga, it is taking out the tongue as I said cutting it out and putting it back here to tickle the Vishuddhi Chakra. I mean I don’t know sometimes, your rationality also goes out, I think. By doing like that do you think you can excite this great power within you, which is discrimination, which understands each and everything; you cannot be fooled by that. So all these tricks which we have been trying by ourselves of poking yourself here and poking yourself there, we are just spoiling your instrument for nothing at all. But it happens, when the Kundalini rises through the Vishuddhi chakra, that when the dilation of the Chakra takes place it happens that your tongue is pulled inside. It happens that your eyes get dilated. I hope they do not put Atropine to dilate their eyes to get their Kundalini awakening. So it happens like that Bandhas take place the stomach holds the kundalini with the Bandhas. It closes down the chakras when the kundalini comes up, it closes down automatically so that the energy is kept upwards it is not allowed to fall down. All these things happen within us. These Bandhas happen which some supraconscious people might be seeing and they want to think that if you pull your stomach like this, put your tongue inside, kundalini is awakened These things happen as a result of kundalini awakening but by doing these things you do not awaken the kundalini. Now did you follow my point ? Did you ? It is clear now.

That is why these Kriya yogas have started, this jumping has started. Even the nudity has started. All this as a result of some people who are trying to raise the kundalini. Even in the centre which it rises all these things happen. When your health is not alright you are sick, your heart is working, laboring very hard to look after your physical being, you try to make it even weaker by taking these strenuous things. And by using the other way round methods, as I told you, you also spoil your instrument like the electricity has to come so the electricity must flow from there If I start blowing from here or poking from here, with frustration also breaking this one here electricity is not going to come, only this will be finished. l)o you follow my clear cut idea ? It is very clear that if you are going to spoil your own instrument you are not going to get the energy to rise within you.

But one who is a realized soul he would tell you first of all he may raise of your kundalini, minimum, awaken your kundalini and ask you to make way for the kundalini to rise gradually. Human beings when they raise their kundalini they raise it by every chakra. They bring the kundalini to, say, Mooladhara, of course they cannot touch it. The kundalini would come up to, say, nabhi at the most. Then how to keep it there so they will say, “eat less, do not take away your attention too much, you must eat very little food so that there is no much attention on food. You must be detached.” This is before 25 years of age. “Do not strave too much. Eat at regular intervals Do not pay much attention to anywhere outside” so that the attention is kept there so the kundalini does not drop down from the little inch of progress it has made in 25 years.

They are born again and they move at the pace of an ant and they fix your kundalini by inches there and they say do not lead any adharmic life, you have to lead a very virtuous life, like a horse, you see, when you have to train the horse you put these two blinds around so they have to train the horse before it starts really running the race. But with this the most important is the love of the grand parents who are with them, in those days they used to be-to look after the children and the love of the Guru and the training and the discipline of the own self. The gurus who take money from you what are they going to train you up in ? Business management or dubious methods of cheating ? Their own lives were so beautifully blended with their love, with their knowledge and their whole understanding that it has a direct affect on the character and the personality of the pupil. While now in India no body can write epic like Rama’s. We do not have any Ramas now. We won’t have perhaps. They only write stories. Now we have poems coming out of India like your horrible Lord Byron, he is born in India now. He has left your country. So like that all the dynamism in literature is also finished because there is no ideal before the people. They cannot think of a perfect personality. So the epics are different and they say everywhere we go to learn these thing to our Guru (so called) we see their lives. The impression that we have within us is also just the same and they cannot teach anything unless and until they themselves have the light.

Now this Kriya Yoga is also just the same thing. It is described by great saints in India that those Jalunder Bandhas and all these Bandhas take place, means the bondage take place in the stomach in the heart and all these granthis are broken. Yes, it happens in you also when the kundalini rises. It does happen because I am quite a big master. I do everything myself. I do not leave anything to you, till you have got it. Only this thing you have to do is to freely choosing the path of self realization. That is the only thing you have to do “to be absolutely free”. In all your freedom you have to accept Sahaja Yoga. If I find you have not chosen it by your freedom you get out of it, very fast, you would not be there. You will simply run away. If not, I will see to it that you run away.

Some one has to understand all these Margas, all these paths, even like Bhakti. I have told you about three types of bhaktas. One who are asking for kama. So many have come to me for, say, cures, so many of them. It is a good thing. It is a good chance for me. Then they get cured; then they have that love since they are Mumukshus and they can become very great Sahaja yogis. In India there are many who have come like that they first come for treatment and become very great Sahaja yogis. So they can pass through all these various stages.

So one has to understand that this is the time of Mahayoga. Where all these Antar yoga means all these happenings inside take place automatically. I have something to do with your kundalini very much and she knows me very well too. So much so that as soon as she sees me she is up there so happy. And the first impact is so great you feel she is got it. She rises with such thumping joy, you get it. But again you go back to your crutches, Even you have lost all your troubles and everything finished.

Now still you want to have your crutches because you are identified with them. So you go back to your crutches and again want to become lame. This is just acting going on for some time. But if you act for a long period you become fame. Because you have been playing games, you see. And now the game is over. So you have to accept yourself that you are great. And that you have got it now within yourself. It is there now you are a light. You have to accept that you are a light now. You are not the same you were before and you are transformed into this flower. You should have faith in yourself and confidence in you Because you have been identified with people like that with bad experiences, indifferent experiences, you do not want to believe that there can be an experience of that kind. You do not want to accept it. But if you understand it a little bit you will settle down nicely and I am here to make you the master of it absolutely the complete mastery over all this.

When Maha yoga comes in, you do not have to worry about anything else. All the yogas are at your feet. You just raise your hands just like this and the kundalini will rise. It is a fact you just try. Anybody is sick, you put your hands like this the person is going to be alright. Try yourself.

This is Maha yoga. The culmination point of Sahaja Yoga. Once you achieve it you do not have to do anything else. Then you become that because only everything works for the Becoming and if there is something that just gives you the whole thing, then why should you do it. All things that have happened to you after you have come to sahaja yoga I am going to give you a list of those and what are they are called in Sanskrit language.

Thousands of years people have had to work for it. But you have got it just like that. it is a fact. It is difficult to accept that you have got just like that without doing any hard any big exercises, is not it. But just wait and see what you have got. Of course some people do not get it because there is a problem. Some problem is there. But do not bother, it will work out. But those who got it should know that they have got it because of something and that something you have to discover. That is what you have to find out for yourself. There is a reason why you have got it like that. Like mantras also, somebody told me that there is a guru who gives mantras according to the age. It is all nonsense. Complete nonsense it is. You see, even a realized soul would not give you a mantra, that is why it was regarded as a great thing if some body gave you a mantra. Now every Dick, Tom and Harry like a donkey brazes in your ears and you think, “I have got.” They are trying to befool you, they do not know they are befouling themselves. Whatever they have done they will have to pay very heavily.

So mantras are never given just like that you have to know various points of a person, as to, who is your kula-devata, the worship of your family, what is your personal worshipping God, what is your horoscope, what are the stars you are catching. At this point giving of the mantras, the time is to be determined, at a particular time of the horoscope what is the time of the horoscope that tallies with the Guru’s horoscope. That is why people used to have one or two people, Even a person like Gyaneshwara gave a name to only one person in his life time. Here these Dick, Tom and Harry are giving names like they are distributing, I do not know what ? Nothing is more easily available more than these names of horrible things. If I told these Indians they will know ( Hindi speak …)

You should have some sort of an authority which you can use and every mantra which you say will be awakened. You know that after realization it is such a wonderful thing to see that even if you are not yet out of your possession still you work it out. Still nothing happens to your kundalini raising system, nothing happens to that, still you can raise the kundalini. Isn’t it? Still you can give realization to people. You may be possessed all this time, fighting with the spirit but here with one hand you are raising kundalini automatically.

There are lots of spirits which are trying to possess you. You are feeling them with one hand that side and with one hand you are raising the kundalini. Nothing would go wrong with the person whose kundalini you are raising. To that purity. Otherwise to give mantra and to take mantra a person has to starve for seven days. Not to see a man’s face or a woman’s face. All sorts of vidhis ( ) are there, then only you can get it. There some people tell the disciple to wash their hands 108 times every day. All sorts of these neti kriyas and all that has to be done before a mantra is given. it is a big ritual. Why ? Because you are so vulnerable. It is like a phosphorus. And you cannot put phosphorous into some body’s hand. You have to make all arrangements till you can do it safely.

But supposing you become all powerful then what ? Everything becomes a child’s play. Everything becomes so simple. You are raising the kundalini. You know there are centres. You can raise it through the centres. You know how to awaken them. That is why it is Mahayoga.

It had to be this way, sometime, otherwise how are we going to save this world ? How this creation is to be justified ? We have to find. I mean God has to find some method by which all of you who are seeking Him are to be blessed, and that he should be manifested so that His work should be completed.

So this is Mahayoga which encompasses all the yogas. There is no need, now to go to stone ages to come back to human stage. It is something like that. Or else you can say that now if I have to go to India, I need not go like Columbus and end up in America.

Somebody who knows the way has come to you. Who knows everything. All about it. Somebody who has done all this who knows all the tricks of trade and also knows you very well, though still I am learning.

About human beings I have still to learn a lot. They can be quite queer. I do not know why they behave like this. Cannot understand, Oh God It is a great revelation sometimes when you see human beings, how they behave. Very interesting. Very interesting creature, I must say, they never behave the same way. You cannot predict. Most unpredictable. Do not know, what they will come out with ? Very interesting. After Sahaja yoga you will also enjoy very much.

May God bless you !