What is Sahaja Yoga?

How Sahaja works

Sundardas

That perfectly pure Sahaja is in everything
and with that Sahaja all religious people gather together.
Sankara began his sadhana in this Sahaja,
Sukdeva, Sanaka and others also followed this Sahaja way.
Devotees like Sojha, Pipa, Sena and Dhana
all have drunk of this Sahaja-bliss in the natural way.
Raidas was also a sadhaka of Sahaja,
and Guru Dadu also realised infinite bliss in this Sahaja path.

Notes:
Sundardas (1596-1689) was a disciple of the Rajasthani saint, Dadu Dayal. His writings, along with Dadu’s songs and sayings, became the core of the Dadu-panth’s teachings.
Sukadev, the son of Vyas, and Sanaka were semi-mythical sages from before the Kali yuga period. Several earlier Rajasthani saints are mentioned: Sojha was a householder who, along with his wife Sojhi, abandoned their children to become ascetics; King Pipaji (1383-1453) gave up his throne to follow a religious life; Sena (or Sai’n)(c.1500) was a barber in the court of the Bandhogarh king Rajaram who became the king’s guru. Raidas (or Ravidas) (c.1450-1525), was a disciple of Ramanand, and a close associate of Kabir.

Guru Nanak

There are many references to Sahaja in the writings of Guru Nanak (1469-1539), preserved in the Adi Granth.


Mera mani mera man eara Ram piyara Ram

Believe me, my mind is imbued with love of my beloved Rama
The Lord is the truth. He is the primal person, He is beyond all limits.
Him I have accepted as my Rama
He is beyond reach, beyond comprehension of the senses

Beyond our most distant horizons.
He is the Great God who presides over everything.
He was before everything else;
He was when Time began,
He is and ever shall be.
Believe me all else is falsehood.
He who knows not the worth of good deeds and piety,
How can he understand anything?
How shall he attain salvation?
Sayeth Nanak, the saintly know the Word
Day and night they meditate upon the Name.

Believe me my mind has accepted the Name of Rama as its companion
I know that neither ego nor things I love nor wealth will go with me, O Rama!
Neither mother nor father, brother nor sons
Nor any of cunning devices nor property will help you take them or your wives with you.
I have forsaken wealth, divorced maya [illusion] from my mind and crushed her under my foot.

The Primal Lord showed me the way
Wherever I turn I see Him.

Sayeth Nanak, abandon not the worship of Hari,
By the gentle path of Sahaja, you will attain Him.

Believe me, my mind has been purified,
It seeks the Truth, O Rama!
My sins are forgiven,
I am at the meeting of rivers of virtue, O Rama!
I abandon evil ways and tread the path of virtue;
I am at the gate of Truth,
I shall not be born to die,
I have imbibed the quintessence of the guru’s teaching.
Noble Friend! Learned Companion!
When I meet Thee I see the Truth and am exalted.
O Nanak, the jewel of the Name glitters,
Such is the message of the guru!

Truth is the salve
This salve I apply to my own eyes,
I beheld the Lord and loved Him, O Rama!
My mind and body rejoiced in Him.
He gives life to the world, He is bountiful, O Rama!
He is the giver of life to the world,
He is the Bountiful Lord.
I have dyed my mind with the colours of Hari’s Name,
By the gentle way of Sahaj He blended me with Him.

I found the company of holy men
Companionship of the congregation
By the grace of God I achieved tranquility.
Seekers immerse in the worship of Hari,
Conquer the cravings of attachment and desire.
Sayeth Nanak, once the ego is destroyed
The fortunate ones are confirmed in their faith.

Saraha - 2

The body is the boat, the pure mind is the oar.
Take as a rudder the word of a good master.
Make your mind quiet and then steer the boat – by no other means can one reach the other shore.
The boatman tows the boat.
Do not hastily approach the inborn [Sahaja] through other ways.
The path is dangerous, and the wicked are strong.
Everything is destroyed at the swelling of the ocean.
Saraha says: If you follow the bank and sail upstream against the swift current, the boat will enter the sky [heaven].

Kabir

Where there is neither sea nor rains,
Nor sun nor shade;
Where there is neither creation
Nor dissolution;
Where prevails neither life nor death,
Nor pain nor pleasure;
Beyond the states of Sunn and trance;
Beyond words, O friend,
Is that unique state of Sahaj.
It can be neither weighted
Nor exhausted,
Is neither heavy nor light;
It has no upper regions
Nor lower ones;
It knows not the dawn of day
Nor the gloom of night;
Where there is neither wind
Nor water nor fire,
There abides the perfect Master.
It is inaccessible,
It is, and it will ever be;
Attain it through the Master’s grace.
Sayeth Kabir: I surrender myself
At the feet of my master,
I remain absorbed
In his true company.


Kabir(c.1440-1518) has left many references to Sahaja samadhi in his songs.

Ramana Maharshi

1. Holding on to Reality is samadhi.
2. Holding on to samadhi with effort is savikalpa samadhi.
3. Merging in Reality and remaining unaware of the world is nirvikalpa samadhi.
4. Merging in ignorance and remaining unaware of the world is sleep.
5. Remaining in the primal, pure, natural state without effort is sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi.

Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950)

Dadu

Where there is no two, there is Sahaja, there joy and sorrow become one.
Sahaj neither lives nor dies; it is the state of complete nirvana ...
Amidst all duality hold your consciousness in the vacuity of Sahaja,
and drink nectar when you have attained the final state of arrest
and then there is no fear of death or of the flux of time.

Dadu Dayal (1544-1603), Rajasthan

Saraha

In Sahaja there is no duality; it is perfect like the sky.
The intuition of this ultimate truth destroys all attachment and it shines through the darkness of attachment like a full moon in the night.
Sahaja cannot be heard with the ears, neither can it be seen with the eyes;
It is not affected by air nor burnt by fire;
It is not wet in intense rain, it neither increases nor decreases,
It neither exists nor does it die out with the decay of the body;
The Sahaja bliss is only oneness of emotions – it is oneness in all.
Our mind and the vital wind are unsteady like the horse; but in the Sahaja-nature both of them remain steady.
When the mind thus ceases to function and all other ties are torn aside, all the differences in the nature of things vanish; and at that time there is neither the Brahman nor the Sudra.
Sahaja cannot be realized in any of its particular aspects – it is an intuition of the whole, the one underlying reality pervading and permeating all diversity.
As the truth of the lotus can never be found either in the stalk or in the leaves, or in the petals or in the smell of the lotus, or in the filament, - it lies rather in the totality of all these parts, - so also Sahaja is the totality which can only be realized in a perfectly non-dual state of mind.
From it originate all, in it all merge again, - but it itself is free from all existence and non-existence – it never originates at all.


Saraha, 8th century, possibly the first of the Sahajiya Buddhists

Hevajra Tantra

From Joy there is some bliss, from Perfect Joy yet more. From the Joy of Cessation comes a passionless state. The Joy of Sahaja is finality.

The first comes by desire for contact, the second by desire for bliss, the third from the passing of passion, and by this means the fourth [Sahaja] is realized.

Perfect Joy is samsara [mystic union]. The Joy of Cessation is nirvana. Then there is a plain Joy between the two. Sahaja is free of them all. For there is neither desire nor absence of desire, nor a middle to be obtained.

In Sahaja there is neither insight nor skillful means, compared to the realization of correct reality. Sahaja cannot be explained by something else, nor is it found in anything. It is to be known intuitively by oneself, as a result of merit and through service and attendance on the teacher (guru).

Hevajra Tantra, possibly as early as 6th century

Kanha

Say, how can Sahaja be explained?
(For) neither body nor speech nor mind can enter into it.
In vain does the Guru preach to the disciple, for,
how can he explain that which transcends the capacity of all verbal means?

Kanha, a Sahajiya Buddhist from Bengal. c.8th century

Sahaja and the ascending Kundalini

The origins of the word Sahaja are buried in the midst of time. By the time Kabir began using the word in his Hindi songs/poems in the fifteenth century, Sahaja had been in use amongst the mystics of northern India for at least seven hundred years, and most probably much longer.

The Sahajiya Buddhists emerged in Bengal in eastern India somewhere between the 8th and 10th centuries. Saraha, Kanha, Bhusuka, Lui, Tio, and others are known today only through their dohas and caryas (short songs), written in a now defunct language, Apabrahmsa, and in old Bengali. Many of the themes used in their songs can also be found in the work of the later saints such as Kabir , Dadu and Sundardas . Also in the verses and prayers of Nanak, the founding guru of the Sikh tradition, as well as in the work of later mystics in Bengal.

The Nath yogis seem to have emerged in the 10th to 12th centuries in the hills and mountains of northern India. Their main teacher was Gorakh (12th century?) who wrote extensively about the arousing of the Kundalini and the attainment of the Sahaja state. The secret knowledge of the Naths was passed on from teacher to pupil, and also shared with other mystics who were ready for self-realisation. Thus Nath concepts can be found in the songs of the Rajasthani saints Mirabai, Dadu , and Sundardas , the Kashmiri saints Lalla and Rupa Bhavani , and many of the Marathi saints, notably Jnaneshvara, Muktabai, Namdev, Eknath, and Tukaram Oblique references can also be found in the songs of some of the Sufi saints, notably Bulleh Shah (Punjab) and Sachal and Shah Latif (Sind).

In South India several of the Tamil Siddhis have described the ascending Kundalini, including Thirumoolar (6th century) in his Thirumanthiram and Avaiyar (14th century - not to be confused with the earlier saint of the same name) in her Vinayagar Agaval

In the 20th century the South Indian saint, Ramana Maharshi (1879-1950) spoke of the sahaja samadhi. More recently, the Maratha saint, Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi has used the term Sahaja Yoga to describe her Kundalini yoga



Note: There have been distortions and deviations in the Sahaja tradition. In Bengal the Sahaja tradition, handed down from the Sahajiya Buddhists and the Nath yogis, has been distorted by tantric practices. A similar situation has occured in the Buddhist traditions of Nepal and Tibet. Using vibrational awareness, any Sahaja Yogi can differentiate the true Sahaja from the deviant.