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Healing of mind, body and soul is part and parcel of Divine
Message
From: "jagbir singh"
<adishakti_org@yahoo.com>
Date:
Mon Aug 8, 2005 9:55 am
Subject: Healing of
mind, body and soul is part and parcel of Divine Message
Dear
believers of the Divine Message,
The healing of mind, body and soul is part and parcel of the
Divine
Message to humanity. The topic below titled "Sahaja Yoga
Meditation"
by Dr. Rai is but a few officially recognized trees that
make up the
Divine Forest. These handful of trees have little scriptural
backing
and are for those seeking a healthy life on Earth, not the
promised
eternal life in Heaven. That is why no mention is made that
those
wishing to heal must meditate on the founder, a prospect
that many
find revolting and thus leave immediately. Who wants to
meditate on a
subtle system teacher and follow strange rituals to cure
themselves?
But the Divine Message does heal in mind, body and soul
because it
has the backing and eschatological expectations of the
Christian,
Muslim and Hindu holy scriptures. Only those who are taking
part in
the Last Judgment and Resurrection announced by the Adi
Shakti can
truly understand what i am talking about. That is why i am
meditating
on the Divine Mother within myself. i did not become Her
devotee
because of "Sahaja Yoga Meditation" by Dr. Rai, which
reflects the
message of official websites. Most SYs do not see the Divine
Forest
for these few officially recognized trees.
Jai Shri Mataji,
jagbir
Sahaja Yoga
Meditation
About 15 years ago in India, a professor UC Rai accomplished
some
pioneering work with a technique of meditation called Sahaja
Yoga. He
was head of the department of physiology in a well-known
Delhi
medical school. He himself had suffered serious angina
attacks and
was surprised to find that this technique of meditation
seemed to
alleviate his medical condition. Prof Rai, impressed by this
personal
experience, sought to scientifically document the effects of
this
technique. He set up a multifaceted research project. Part
of this
was a study on the effects of Sahaja yoga meditation on
chronic
illnesses such as epilepsy and asthma. Rai's research team
showed
that regular practice of this technique reduced the
frequency,
severity and duration of his patients' epileptic seizures,
for
example. Moreover, when Rai taught another group a mimicking
exercise, which resembled but was actually not the real
technique,
the same improvement did not occur!
Prof Rai saw that the therapeutic effects were real and
reproducible
from one patient to the next. Some years later we, a handful
of
health workers, came across Rai's work. The results in
conditions
ranging from asthma to high blood pressure were very
encouraging so
we decided to test this technique under scientific
conditions here in
Australia. This was the beginning of the Meditation Research
Programme.
The Meditation
Clinic
Our first goal was achieved when we established the
meditation
clinic. The clinic was a non-profit service that offered
instruction
in meditation to those patients who felt that this kind of
lifestyle
adjustment would help them in their search for a cure or
relief for
their illness. A wide variety of patients were sent to us
with many
different problems; most of them chronic conditions for
which there
was little to offer within the mainstream of medicine.
within a few
sessions of instruction most patients reported improvements.
Some of
the toughest cases, to our amazement, remitted completely
with
diligent practice of the technique.
We recalled the gentleman with Inflammatory Bowel Disease
whose daily
regime of medication was only partially successful in
controlling his
daily symptoms of stomach discomfort. With daily meditation
he
improved dramatically to the point where he had no symptoms
and no
flare-ups of his condition.
The chronic headache sufferer, another success story, came
to the
clinic after several years of enduring a constant headache-
after a
few weeks his headache was gone and his life had transformed
dramatically.
Neil: Taming The
Brainstorm
So when Neil arrived in our clinic one day, we were not
unnacustomed
to challenges. Neil was a young man of about twenty years of
age when
his mother brought him to the meditation clinic at Blacktown,
a
working class suburb in Sydney's outerwest.
2 years before he had contracted encephalitis, a viral
infection of
his brain tissue which put him in hospital for several
weeks, his
condition so critical at one stage that he was transferred
into the
intensive care unit.
Although Neil did survive, the viral attack on his brain had
left
subtle scars on this most sensitive of organs. It caused the
neurons
to "short circuit" and produce overpowering waves of
electrical
signals that spread across his entire brain. This
"brainstorm"
resulted in severe epileptic seizures. Although the virus of
Neil's
brain infection had gone it left behind permanent damage
which
condemned him to a life of violent epilepsy that could
strike at any
time.
Epilepsy is a well recognised complication of brain
infection. In
this case it had taken a promising and talented student and
turned
him into an invalid. Neil's fits were so frequent, sometimes
up to
two or three times per day, that he could neither resume his
schooling nor keep a job. He was dependent on his parents
for
everything and hence their lives too had become considerably
restricted by their son's illness.
Like the other patients we advised Neil that his response to
the
technique would mostly be determined by his own motivation
to
practice it regularly. We were not the healers in the
clinic, rather
Neil was going to learn how to awaken an innate and
spontaneous
healing power within himself. This energy would work
inexorably
through his meditation to improve his physical, mental and
spiritual
health.
The research done in India on epilepsy showed that patients
who
practised the technique consistently experienced reductions
in the
amount and severity of the fits that they were experiencing.
This
also gave us confidence that Neil could, if he really wanted
to, use
this technique to his benefit.
Neil learned the Sahaja Yoga technique quickly and practiced
it
diligently. The first changes we noticed were in Neil's
face. His
eyes lost their usual dullness, they looked clear and
bright. When we
first saw this 19 year old boy he looked like an old man,
hunched
over, his face drawn with dark rings under his eyes. Now he
started
to look young again and the dark shadow that seemed to hang
over him
had gone. After a few weeks he would even come to the class
with a
smile where usually there was only a frown. Neil's progress
was
obvious to us and it was not too much of a surprise to hear
that his
fits were reducing in frequency.
After several weeks his mother came to the clinic to invite
us for
dinner: Neil had not had a major fit in four weeks, they
were
planning to go away for the weekend and for the first time
in many
years life was starting to look normal for them!
Successful cases like Neil's and many of the other patients
were
inspiring for us all but it would not be enough for us to
convince a
skeptical medical profession. Medical practitioners want
scientific
data. So after more than two years of the meditation clinic
we had
enough confidence and had gathered sufficient evidence to
embark on a
proper attempt to scientifically evaluate the benefits of
this
process.
Asthma Research
It so happened that Prof Rai had also looked at the effect
of
meditation on asthma during his investigation into the
Sahaja Yoga
effect. So we decided to use his results along with our
accumulated
experience at the meditation clinic as a basis for an asthma
trial
here in Australia.
In consultation with a number of respected Asthma
researchers a
strategy was devised to compare the effect of meditation
against a
simple relaxation technique: We wanted to know whether there
really
was something unique about this process or if it was simply
like any
other relaxation technique. Our plan involved selecting a
large group
of people with severe asthma whose condition did not
properly respond
even to maximum levels of medication. These people were
divided into
two groups. One group received regular instruction in Sahaja
Yoga
Meditation while the other group was taught a popular
relaxation
technique. Bothe before and then after about 16 sessions the
patients
were assessed and the two groups compared to see if there
was a
difference between the two techniques. The Royal Australian
College
of General Practitioners funded the project and after18
months it was
completed.
We were stunned by the results! Most of us expected that
there would
be little difference, on average, between the groups. So
when we saw
that the performance of the meditation group was between 50%
and 150%
better than the relaxation group we were very impressed.
Some of the
tests showed us that the meditation not only improved
symptoms but
even modified the disease process itself! This effect was
not seen at
all in the relaxation group.
David: A Breath of
Fresh Air
There were many remarkable individual stories within the
Asthma
project. One of them is David's: We recalled him as typical
42 year
old "Aussie Battler". He had suffered asthma since infancy
and it had
had greatly frustrated both his career and sporting
ambitions. When
we assessed him prior to his entry to the trial his asthma
was in the
severest of categories. Simply blowing into the spirometer,
a machine
used to test lung capacity, caused his asthma to worsen!
After
sixteen weeks of meditation, which he took to like fish to
water, he
returned for reassessment.
At the lung function laboratory we saw a changed man :
David's lung
function had increased, his symptoms reduced massively and
the
standard tests that initially placed him in the severest of
asthma
categories now indicated that his asthma was now one of the
mildest!
David told us that his asthma had improved so much that he
was
sleeping through the night rather than being woken with
symptoms, he
was playing sport and had saved more than $1500 in
medication
expenses since he started the programme!
How Does it Work?
How does meditation bring about these sometimes astounding
effects?
The "Sahaja Yoga Hypothesis" is that meditation triggers a
process
within a complex set of nerves that governs the function of
al the
organs of our body, called the "Autonomic Nervous System".
Imbalance
within this system, says the hypothesis, is the cause of
both
physical and psychological illness. The process of
meditation
rebalances this system thereby allowing our natural healing
processes
to revitalise and rejuvenate diseased organs.
Ancient Tradition of
The Kundalini
The ancient yoga tradition explains the inner healing
process in
terms of seven subtle energy centres (called chakras) that
exist
within our body. Each of these centres governs a specific
set of
organs, aspects of our psychology and spirituality.
Imbalanced
function of these centres results in abnormal function of
any aspect
of our being (physical, mental or spiritual) that relates to
the
imbalanced centre.
Meditation is said to be a specific process that involves
the
awakening of an innate, nurturing energy called "Kundalini".
The
awakening if the Kundalini causes it to rise from its
position of
slumber in the sacrum bone, pierce through each of the
chakras
causing each of them to come into a state of balance and
alignment (a
little like a string threading through a series of beads).
In this
way the chakras are rejuvenated and nourished by the
Kundalini's
ascent.
As the Kundalini reaches the brain and the chakras within it
mental
tensions are neutralised. An inner state of mental calm is
established. This inner silence becomes a source of peace
within us,
a fortress that shields us form the stresses of daily life,
makes us
more creative, productive and satisfied with ourselves.
Meditation and the
Eastern View of Stress
Meditation is an eastern tool that offers western doctors a
new way
of looking at health. The role of stress in disease is well
recognised by modern medical researchers but, despite the
progress
that has been made in this field, there remains some very
fundamental
yet unanswered questions. One of those question is "What
exactly is
stress?". Few of us can easily come up with a good
definition
of "stress" yet, while we don't know exactly what it is, we
intuitively recognise that it is a factor that affects
almost every
aspect of our lives!
The Eastern explanation of "stress" is probably one of the
most
commonsense and practically useful. While you read this see
if you
can "look inside" and apply this perspective to yourself.
Stress,
says the Eastern perspective, is the by-product of thought.
If we
examine the nature of the thoughts that each of us
experiences from
moment to moment we will find that they all relate to one of
two
broad categories: (l) events that have occurred in the past
or (2)
events that we anticipate will occur in the future. Whether
the event
was an argument with a friend yesterday (past), an unpaid
bill
(future), a deeply troubling childhood experience that has
become
part of our subconscious (past) or anxiety about the share
market
(future) we will find that all of these troubling thoughts,
and the
resulting stress that they cause us, to have arisen from
only the
past or future!
Take the exercise a little further. If the vast majority, if
not all,
our thoughts emanate from events in the past or future, is
it
possible to think about the absolute present moment? Most of
us will
admit that while we can think about events in the past (even
a few
moments ago) or events scheduled in the future (even
milliseconds in
the future) it is impossible to actually think about the
present
moment which we are continuously experiencing and is ever
changing.
Now think about the stress that we all experience from time
to time.
Despite the huge variety of situations that "stress" us they
all have
one thing in common: we have to think about the events
before they
can reduce our sense of wellbeing. In other words thought is
itself
the final common pathway by which all events create stress
within us!
The past, comprised of events that have already occurred, no
longer
exists. Similarly the future, comprised of events that have
yet to
occur and are therefore undetermined, does not yet exist.
However,
paradoxically, we human beings exist only in the present.
The mind
(and its thoughts), since it is comprised only of stuff from
the past
or future, is therefore not real and so the stress that it
generates
is also not real!
If we are beings that exist in the present, we realise that
the
stress and angst of life emanate from a mind which is the
product of
past/future, we acknowledge also that the antidote for the
mental
illusions that cause stress is to reign in our attention and
focus it
on the present moment. There remains a further question: Is
it
possible?
While for most of us focusing on the absolute present moment
is
virtually impossible it is this razor's-edge of thoughtless
awareness
that the Easterner seeks to cultivate and sustain in
meditation. The
vast inner silence of the thoughtless state leaves the mind
uncluttered by mental preconception or past experiences. By
existing
in that space-between-the thoughts one is neither enslaved
to one's
past nor confined to a predetermined future. The inner
silence of
meditation thus creates a naturally stress-free inner
environment.
Examples of Living
in the Moment
Yes it is and most of us encounter living examples of it
regularly!
Observe closely the next small child you encounter. They
have no
worried lines on their faces, are almost always playing and
enjoying
themselves, rarely complain about bills, jobs, chores, etc.
If one
happens to have an unpleasant experience it is quickly
forgotten and
life goes on. They are naturally balanced, living in the
present,
stress free beings. None of us have seen a toddler hold a
grudge,
worry about the next meal or even think about what they did
yesterday
or will do tomorrow. They are so focused on the present
moment that
they are entirely spontaneous, unpretentious and usually
very happy.
They are in a constant state of effortless meditation.
Living in the moment is not, however, a regression to
immaturity. It
is an evolutionary step in which we return to our childlike
innocence
and simplicity but in full awareness of ourselves, our place
in
society and moral role and responsibility.
How does one tap into and sustain a connection with the
present
moment? How does one escape the brainstorm of mental stress
that we
all experience?
Conclusion
The research data so far and our experience at the clinic is
compelling evidence. We would all agree that more research
needs to
be done to try to understand how this "Sahaja Yoga effect "
occurs.
Does it work via the Autonomic Nervous System? Is it really
the
result of an ancient residual energy that exists within each
of us
called Kundalini? Is it possible bring together the most
ancient of
traditions with modern science? The research programme will
continue
to delve into these important questions. For the reader
suffice to
say that Sahaja Yoga meditation offers a genuine method by
which each
of us can tame the brainstorm, realise a state of peace and
tranquility and begin to heal our body, mind and spirit.
Dr Ramesh Manocha
e-mail: R.Manocha@...
http://www.cancersupportwa.org.au/Spotlight/archive.htm
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