What is Sahaja Meditation?

Sahaja Meditation is a simple technique that lets you tap into your subtle inner energy system and harness its power to become better balanced and better connected to yourself — emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Even at its most fundamental level, Sahaja Meditation can offer important practical benefits; for example, relief from stress, anxiety and negative thought patterns.

But Sahaja is much more than a temporary solution or "quick fix." It is a journey, rather than a destination, with many layers, varied and deep, that you can explore at your own pace, in your own way. Ultimately, the practice of Sahaja can allow you to connect to the utmost depths of your spiritual self. And inner energy is natural, sustainable, and infinitely renewable.

How Sahaja Meditation Plugs You into Your Inner Energy

Sahaja Meditation helps you achieve self-realization by learning to feel, understand and use your subtle energy system. The subtle energy system is a network of seven energy centers (chakras) and channels (nadi) distributed along your central nervous system through which your inner energy (Kundalini) flows. Each of these energy centers is associated with specific organic functions and personality attributes. Think of the energy centers as fulcrums that control critical aspects of your physical, mental and spiritual life; in fact, most problems in life can be traced to imbalances and blockages in these energy centers.

The process of self-realization begins with the raising or awakening of your inner energy, from the triangular-shaped sacrum at the base of your spine up through all your energy centers. The inner energy opens, clears and activates your energy centers. This powerful Kundalini energy is released through the crown of your head (where the fontanelle used to be), establishing a connection with the cosmic energy or the all-pervading divine energy. Your energy centers vibrate in resonance with the Kundalini and cosmic energy — you will literally feel the vibrations of your energy centers in the nerve endings of your fingers and toes, or perhaps as a warm breeze on the palm of your hand.

Reaching Thoughtless Awareness

Once your inner energy is awakened, Sahaja Meditation techniques allow you to reach the state of thoughtless awareness, a place of mental silence. Between one thought and the next, there is a very small gap of time — a fraction of a second. The most effective way to calm the mind and the physical self is to lengthen that nanosecond gap to for as long as you can — in other words, to remain in a thoughtless state. As you continue to practice Sahaja, you gradually learn to lengthen this gap more and more.

Thoughtless awareness is a place of complete calm, free of distractions and negative, self-defeating thought patterns and beliefs that don't serve you well. Thinking stops. Your attention becomes clear and pure, and focused on the present — not the past or the future. The result of this peace is better health, sharper focus, and a deeper understanding of the universe and your place in it.

Thoughtless awareness is the most important aspect of Sahaja, with respect to achieving long-term benefits. It helps you manage everything in life with vigor and razor-sharp attention and focus. Because energy flow is maximized during thoughtless awareness, a positive cycle is created — you become completely relaxed and calm, while feeling full of energy and fully-balanced. In fact, a short period of thoughtless awareness can generate enough energy to fuel the rest of your day.

How Sahaja Meditation Differs From Other Forms of Meditation?

On the surface, Sahaja has a lot in common with other popular forms of meditation; for example, it helps manage stress and heal emotional problems, such as depression and anxiety. But what's unique to Sahaja Meditation that no other meditation technique offers is the connection to one's inner energy and the ability, over time, to influence the flow of that energy to improve your own mental and physical well-being. The regular practice of Sahaja Meditation actually allows you to intervene with your central nervous system and influence the flow of your inner energy, which allows you to influence all aspects of your physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.

The state of thoughtless awareness offered by Sahaja Meditation is both experientially and physiologically different from simple relaxation or generic meditation. In fact, studies conducted by Dr. Ramesh Manocha of the Royal Hospital for Women in Australia showed that Sahaja's mental silence approach to meditation, when compared to a “non-mental silence” approach, was, on average, twice as effective in reducing work-related stress, general depressive symptoms and anxiety.

So, while Sahaja may appear to be merely the practice of meditation, it can ultimately become a far more powerful and fulfilling experience. In fact, trying to describe the true Sahaja experience is like trying to describe the magnificent beauty of the deep ocean floor — with all its living, miraculous complexity — to someone who's standing on the shore, asking what lies beneath the surface of the ocean. No matter how hard you try to describe what can be found in the depths of the ocean, it can only be truly experienced if you dive down to those depths yourself.

More and more, physicians and the scientific community, in general, are beginning to acknowledge the direct benefits of meditation — and Sahaja, in particular — on emotional and physical well-being. Sahaja is gaining a reputation as a practical therapeutic intervention in the field of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) with a wide range of applications in medicine, psychology and neuroscience. Sahaja Meditation can cure or help treat all sorts of emotional and physical illnesses, either as an adjunct therapy or, in some cases, as a standalone therapy.

For example, the U.S. government's National Institutes of Mental Health (NIH) seminars have included Sahaja Meditation techniques over the years, demonstrating how Sahaja's ability to clear the subtle energy centers can prevent and cure high blood pressure and ischaemic heart disease, asthma, epilepsy, migraine syndrome and a host of other illnesses. And recently, the physical impact and mental resilience benefits of Sahaja Meditation on school children have been demonstrated through research and studies.