Does Sahaja Yoga really give people what they are seeking?

A Q-n-A with Shri Mataji

Interviewer: The founder of Sahaja Yoga is Mataji Nirmala Devi, wife of the distinguished United Nations diplomat based in London. And last week I talked to Her at Her home for Radio Falmer.

Q: Mataji, what is Sahaja Yoga. Could You describe it?

Shri Mataji: The "sahaj", the meaning of the word "sahaja" is, "saha" means "with", "ja" means "born". It is born with you, "sahaja", means it is spontaneous. It is a living process. As whatever is born with us is also very easy. In the same way, it also means it's easy, it's simple, spontaneous. For example the breathing mechanism within us is born with us. So it is spontaneous. We don't have to read books about it or put any effort. In the same way it's effortless. You cannot do it through your metal projection. And "yoga" means the union with the Divine. And union with the Divine is to be understood through the technique of yoga. So it also means "technique". It means the union and then the technique of the laws of the Divine.

Q: Would it be possible, Mataji, to describe Sahaja Yoga or yoga generally as related to man's evolution?

Shri Mataji: This is the only way now human beings can evolve into their higher realm of collective consciousness or what you call Self-Realization where they become the self, the spirit. It is said in all the scriptures that you are a spirit but you have to be born again. So there is something that is lacking in this human life, in this human awareness. And this human awareness has to be enlightened by the light of the spirit. But how to do it? We think that by reading, by talking about it, by thinking about it, or by crying for God, or worshipping God we can get it. It's wrong. It's a living process. Just like a seed sprouting. Just like a primule coming out of the seed in a living way. In the same way there is a Kundalini within us, a power, a residual power which is actually our primal desire, the power of primal desire which manifests this happening. She's sleeping there till somebody who is the authority or has a capacity to awaken it. Like the Mother Earth has got the capacity to awaken the primule in a seed. Nobody can do it. Even if you try to read the whole of Bible, the whole of Koran before a seed, it will not sprout.

Q: Might I finally ask You, Mataji… Many people are seeking happiness in many different ways in the world. Is it true that, well, would You say that Sahaja Yoga really satisfies all these different sorts of seeking by different people? Does it really give people what they are seeking?

Shri Mataji: You see, under illusion man thinks that. Sometimes he thinks that he wants money, sometimes he think he wants power, sometimes he thinks he wants emotional help and all that. But actually that is what human beings think that "Perhaps this will give us happiness, that will give us happiness". But you know the economical laws are such that wants in general cannot give you happiness or satisfaction. It's written. They are not satiable. It's accepted by economics. So these things that we think of do not give us real joy. Happiness is a thing that is perishable. Unhappiness follows happiness, again happiness comes, unhappiness comes. So a man is dwindling between these two stages of so-called mythical enjoyment or a mythical unhappiness.
But there is something like absolute joy and that emits through your spirit. But if you do not go for your primal desire, the only desire for which you are made, to be one with the Divine, all other things cannot give you the joy. Because that's the primal in you existing and if you do not pay heed to that, you cannot be happy.

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi   October 25, 1982   Radio Falmer Interview   University of Sussex    Falmer, U.K.