Sahaja Yoga

Sahaja Yoga
FounderNirmala Srivastava (aka Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi)
Established5 May 1970
Practice emphases
kundalini, meditation, self-realization[1]

Sahaja Yoga (सहज योग) is a religion founded in 1970 by Nirmala Srivastava (1923–2011).[2] Nirmala Srivastava is known as Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi (trans: Revered Immaculate Mother) or simply as "Mother" by her followers, who are called Sahaja yogis.[3][4]

Practitioners believe that during meditation they experience a state of self-realization produced by kundalini awakening, and that this is accompanied by the experience of thoughtless awareness or mental silence.[5]

Shri Mataji described Sahaja Yoga as the pure, universal religion integrating all other religions.[3] She claimed that she was a divine incarnation,[6] more precisely an incarnation of the Holy Spirit, or the Adi Shakti of the Hindu tradition, the great mother goddess who had come to save humanity.[3][7] This is also how she is regarded by most of her devotees.[8] Sahaja Yoga has sometimes been characterized as a cult.[9][10]

  1. ^ "Experience Your Self Realization". sahajayoga.org. Vishwa Nirmala Dharma. 12 June 2006. Archived from the original on 19 November 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
  2. ^ Jones, Lindsey, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of Religion (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA [Imprint]. ISBN 978-0-02-865997-8.
  3. ^ a b c Coney, Judith (1999). Sahaja Yoga: Socializing Processes in a South Asian New Movement. Richmond: Curzon Press. ISBN 0-7007-1061-2.
  4. ^ "Sahaja Yoga founder Nirmala Devi is dead". The Indian Express. Express News Service. 25 February 2011. Archived from the original on 5 May 2017.
  5. ^ Srivastava, Nirmala (1989). Sahaja Yoga Book One (2nd ed.). Australia: Nirmala Yoga.[non-primary source needed][page needed]
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference inform was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference kakar was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Prophecies and Fulfillments". Sahaja Yoga Meditation. Vishwa Nirmala Dharma. 7 May 2017. Archived from the original on 12 May 2017.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference be-advisory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference jma was invoked but never defined (see the help page).