“Controlling the thoughts and the activities of the senses, let the yogi practice meditation for self-purification.” – Shri Krishna - ‘Bhagavad Gita’ (6:12)

“Union with the Essence of our Lord comes about quickly...provided suspension of thought has been practiced long enough…from this I understood the prophetic saying ‘better an hour of meditation than seventy years of religious practice,’ since by this meditation a man is transported from the created world into the world of purity; and one could also say, from the presence of the created into the presence of the Creator. And God is our Warrant for what we say.” - Shaikh al-Arabi ad-Darqawi - ‘Letters of a Sufi Master’.

It is important to understand that meditation is not something that we ‘do’ but is a state of our awareness in which we are not thinking. To get into this state we must let go of all our thoughts. This process is known in Sanskrit as ‘Vichara Shaithiliya’ meaning ‘Relaxation of the thoughts’. At first it may be hard to become thoughtlessly aware even for a few minutes a day but by following the advice in this website and by listening to Shri Mataji’s many lectures, many of the subtle techniques that will help to achieve this state can be easily learned with a little dedication and perseverance. Thoughtless awareness or Nirvichara samadhi is the first step on the path of Sahaja Yoga. Without achieving this awareness we are not practicing Sahaja Yoga properly. Try to be honest to yourself about how thoughtless you are becoming in meditation. Watch your mind and your attention and try to detach your attention from all the thoughts that come into your mind.

Shri Mataji’s advice on meditation

“Try to meditate. Meditate more, so that you reach that inner being. And this inner being is the vast ocean of bliss which exists in every one of us, the vast flood of light that floods everybody's inner beauty. So to approach it, you have to go within yourself by denying things which are against it, against your movement. Sometimes the wind can be very, very strong for you to not understand that the glory of God is within, but turn back. Every moment remember that your movement has to be inward. When you move inward you forget the ideas of your outer glories. It is an individual journey towards God. When you meditate and when you reach there, then you become collective. Before that it's an absolutely individual journey within. It's an absolutely individual journey. You should be able to see this; that in this journey nobody is your relation, nobody is your friend. You are absolutely alone, absolutely alone. You have to move alone within yourself. Don't hate anyone, don't be irresponsible, but in a meditative mood you are alone. No one exists there, you alone, and once you enter into that ocean then the whole world becomes your family, the whole world is your own manifestation. All the children become your children and you treat all people with equal understanding.

The whole expansion takes place when you enter inside your Spirit and start seeing through the eyes of the Spirit. There's such calm, such peace, such bliss within you. You have to be ready for that journey. In that journey you are alone in your medita- tive state, and the more you find something in your meditation, the more you want to go and distribute it to others. That has to be. If that does not come into you then it has not worked out, there is no purity, there is some sort of a bias. In that individual pursuit, whatever you find, you want to enjoy it with others, you want to give it to others. This is the sign of the person who has been really meditative. The one who has been meditative and has not been able to distribute what he has found is cheating himself and cheating others as well. Because that joy that you receive in your meditation has to be distributed, has to be given, has to be shown. It should flow in your being as the light radiates from every illumined lamp. You don't have to take a vow to say that ‘this is an enlightened light’; in the same way a saint should not have to be certified that he is a saint. The depth you achieve within yourself spreads all over. It is such an action and reaction. The deeper you become, the radiation is much more. A simple, very ordinary person, uneducated person, can be like that. We have one gentleman called Varick in Bombay. He’s an old man, and is so deep. He radiates love. He's so meditative. You don't have to spend too much time on meditation. But whatever time you spend, whatever you gain, has to be visible outside - how you radiate and how you give it to others.” – Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi -1988

Shri Mataji’s advice on effortless meditation

“In the same way vibrations are coming, they are radiated. What you have to do is to expose yourself to it. The best way is not to put in any effort. Don’t worry at what point you have a problem. Say, many people during meditation, I have seen, if they catch somewhere they go on looking after it. You just don’t have to worry. You just let it go and it will work by itself. So you don’t have to put in any effort. This is what meditation is. Meditation means exposing yourself to God’s grace. Now the grace itself knows how to cure you. It knows how to mend you, how to settle down itself into your own being, how to keep your Spirit kindled. It knows everything. So you don’t have to worry as to what you have to do or what name you have to take, what mantras you have to do. In meditation you have to be absolutely effortless, expose yourself fully and you have to be absolutely thoughtless at that time.

Supposing, possibly, you might not be thoughtless. At that time you have to just watch your thoughts, but do not get involved into them. You will find gradually as the sun rises, darkness goes away and the sun’s rays go into every part and makes the whole place enlightened. In the same way your being will be completely enlightened but if you put in an effort at that time or try to stop something within you or try to give it a bandhan it will not. Effortlessness is the only way into meditation, but you should not be lethargic about it - should be alert and watch it . The other side could be that people just dose off. No, you have to be alert. If you dose off, nothing will work out. That’s another side of it. If you are lazy about it nothing will work out. You have to be alert and open, absolutely aware, completely effortless, absolutely effortless. If you are absolutely effortless, meditation will work the best.

Don’t think about your problems at all, whatever chakras you have, anything, just expose yourself to the vibrations. See when the sun shines all the nature exposes itself to the sun and receives the blessings of the sun effortlessly. It does not put in any effort, it just receives the sun - the sun’s rays start acting. In the same way the all-pervading power starts working. You are not to manoeuvre it, you are not to do anything about it. Just be effortless, absolutely effortless. Do not take any names (mantras). Do not bother if your Agnya is catching, this is catching, that is catching. It is working out. It will go on working as long as it can and it will do the miracle that it has to do. You don’t have to worry about it, it knows its job. But when you put an effort you actually create a barrier for it. So no effort is needed, be absolutely effortless and say ‘let it go, let it go’ - that’s all. No mantras are to be chanted. In case you find it’s impossible then you can take my name, but there is no need even.

When you put your hands toward me that is the mantra, it is sufficient, this gesture itself is the mantra. You see there is no need to say it more, but the thought in the mind, the emotions, is what we spread our hands to that and it should work. When this emotion is absolutely complete, there is no need to say any mantra - you go beyond it. So one has to be absolutely effortless, absolutely effortless. That is what it is. Meditation is for your own ascent, is for your own capital gains that you have to have. But once you get to it, you also achieve your powers. Like if you become the governor, you get the powers of the governor. At this time you don’t have to think about anybody else. You are not to put your attention towards anybody else but just receive, just receive it .

Do not think about any other problem, but that you have to be absolutely effortless. It would work the best on the people who are just receiving it. You have problems, that’s why you are here, but you cannot solve them, they are to be solved by the divine power. This must be understood fully, that we cannot solve our problems. It is beyond us to solve our problems. So leave it in the hands of divine power and expose yourself effortlessly, absolutely effortlessly. ”

- Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi - London 1 Jan 1980