Nirmala Devi-Founder of Sahaj Yoga Part III

While Sahaj Yoga quickly attracted a large number of adherents, believers, and followers, there were questioning minds too, who wanted a rational evaluation of the efficacy of this method of meditation. Inevitably, it led to a number of research studies. Scores of papers and articles were written on Sahaj Yoga, most of them found a strong correlation between its practice and the resultant benefits, mainly a calmer and more placid mind. Yet, central to this practice, is the faith underlying  the process. It's a leap of faith. And often it’s a leap of faith that has made humanity cover deep chasms and seek impossible destinations. The concluding part of my article on Nirmala Devi explores her legacy.

The ready spread of Sahaj Yoga and its rapidly increasing acceptance queered the curiosity of thousands of people. While some took it as a means to address their personal issues, many were sceptical about its claims.

Scientific Enquiries

Inevitable and not surprisingly, Sahaj Yoga readily became a subject of research and investigation particularly its effect on human mind. In India, people don’t demand scientific evidence of spiritual experiences, many societies, however, do. A large number of research findings are available in public domain on the transformative powers of Sahaj yoga. Scores of research papers, articles and discussion papers have brought out its positive effect on physical and mental health. Most of them endorse the faith that people both from within and outside, have reposed in the power of this meditative technique.

These studies conducted generally found distinctly positive effect on a variety of health issues, particularly the mental ones. A University of Vienna study showed highly positive effect on addiction to drugs and alcohol.  And a study made by Royal Hospital for Women at Randwick, Sydney, Australia indicated a highly effective improvement in ADHD and other attention problems. One study conducted in India by the  Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences, Delhi, India, claimed significant improvements in stress management. A specific study whether it could be treated as placebo, brought out that it has broad and important implications for all levels of society. On another specific question whether Sahaj Yoga could be recommended by health professionals to both prevent and reduce stress, the finding was a confident yes.

Sahaj Yoga has many admirers and many proponents. But are there  critics as well? The rationalist, for instance, maintain that the meditation is merely a generic practice and have predictable outcomes. They don’t attribute the positive outcomes to any spiritual factor or even the influence of a teacher or a Guru. Yet, even they don’t deny the miraculous outcomes, faith is capable of producing.

The realm of sub-conscious and unconscious human mind seems too complex to quantitatively establish the decisiveness of the claims leading to self-realisation. The paradigm of faith and belief  best situates in personal experiences, felt, endured and internalised.

The Legacy

She breathed her last far away from where she was born, in the port town of Genoa, Italy on February 23, of 2011 at the age of 88, her mission of life substantially fulfilled. Her legacy, though, lives on as the experience of self-realization continues to transform countless lives under the loving care of Sahaja Yoga practitioners and at over 100 meditation centres  where Sahaja Yoga is taught, always free of charge.

Sahaj Yoga’s strength lies in its simplicity. And it sustains support from the conviction that each human being is capable of achieving divinity and a state of serenity on her own strength. It nurses on the  human spirit’s quest for divinity in every mind. It reposes faith in ordinary human being and demonstrates that by simply following certain basic and simple methods, one can enter a deep meditative mind and realise the energy and positivity of divinity. It dispels the conception that meditation is a complex and difficult process, instead, it emphasises that each one of us can meditate and feel the power of god within ourselves. Indeed, it essentially demystifies the process of realising oneness with God.

Sahaj Yoga does not make a distinction between the unhappiness of a rich and poor, of the discontentment of a Brahmin or a Dalit, nor does it distinguish between the disenchantment of a man and a woman. Unhappiness is as universal and as equitably distributed as is the grace of God. As Mata ji put it so clearly,

“Frankly, there is no peace within human beings nor without. The poor and the rich alike are unhappy. Everywhere people are groping for solutions. At the artificial level, the intellectual can work out certain problems about things that we see around us in jeopardy. But while a few problems may be resolved in this way, others arise. True solution lies not in the material circumstances outside human beings but inside the human beings, inside the human beings themselves. True and lasting solutions to present ills can be found only by inner, collective transformation of human beings. This is not an impossibility. In fact, it has already happened.” Sahaj yoga addresses the collectiveness of the  spiritual challenge and offers a universality of its application. And therein lies its strength and sustenance.

A Leap of Faith?

“And like the ocean that strikes all the shores and then all the ripples go back and weave a pattern, that’s how the whole of my life I could see as a beautiful pattern.” thus spake Mata ji. Finding beauty and grace in our lives is as much a purpose as seeking physical well-being and finding material comfort.

The best way, perhaps, to evaluate and understand a phenomenon like Sahaj Yoga is not to get into a wasting and avoidable debate about the science of it, and bicker about the credibility of evidence. In such matters, faith and trust of those who stand by its beneficial influence on their lives  may be taken as an endorsement of its contribution to enriching their lives. And the fact remains that there are hundreds of thousands of men and women cutting across nationalities who vouchsafe the techniques of Sahaj Yoga in bringing peace, calm and serenity to their minds. And that alone should matter.  

Often it’s a leap of faith that has made humanity cover deep chasms and seek  impossible destinations.

(Concluded)

(Uday Kumar Varma is an IAS officer. Retired as Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting)