I’m still getting unlimited benefits from Sahaja Yoga Meditation after 41 years daily practice:

Posted in 21st century trend, alert mental silence, benevolence, birthday, collective consciousness, dynamic inner silence, enlightenment, freedom, hope, joy, Kundalini, life, love, meditation, people, Sahaja Yoga Meditation, Shri Mataji, smile, thoughtless awareness, timelessness, well-being, yoga means 'UNION'
Tagged 21st century trend, birthday, cool breeze, fulfillment, humanity, inner freedom, inner peace, inspiration, life, Sahaja Yoga Meditation, self-realization, Shri Mataji, thoughtless awareness, wellbeing
or here:
http://edsaugstad.com/VIDEO-files/the-cool-breeze-and-forgiveness-from-The-Shack.mp4
Sarayu = Wind: The name is the feminine derivative of the Sanskrit root सर् sar “to flow”; as a masculine stem, saráyu- means “air, wind”, i.e. “that which is streaming”.
https://www.sciencealert.com/yoga-and-meditation-in-the-us-are-totally-exploding-right-now
Posted in 21st century trend, Christmas, creativity, enlightenment, freedom, fulfillment, happiness, hope, inspiration, Kundalini, life, meditation, mental silence, music, peace, people, reality, Shri Mataji, thoughtless awareness, well-being, yoga means 'UNION'
Tagged cool breeze, Ed Saugstad, Eero Heinonen, Matt Malley, Neil Young, Sahaja Yoga meditaion, Shri Mataji, thoughtless awareness, Tim Bruce, Van Morrison
I met an elderly woman some years ago who told me this story. It reminded me of a similar experience that I once had. Here I share her memory with you:
“For several years following my divorce in the 1980’s I had fallen into a state of total exhaustion and acute mental and physical anguish, but one morning I woke with a strange premonition that something good would happen. I had an immense desire to go to Chartres Cathedral to see the Virgin Mary there.
In the cathedral I prayed before the statue of the Virgin. Immediately I smelled a very strong rose perfume. It was so intense that I turned around to see where it was coming from. I walked around the cathedral and the scent followed me around the whole building. As I left and stood in the open air in the square by the entrance, the scent was still there. A few yards away from where I was standing I could see an Indian lady wearing a white sari getting out of a car. She looked at me and smiled, and I felt attracted to Her. Suddenly my head emptied of all thought and I could only see this lady, as though nothing else was there. She was still smiling at me. I approached and felt an explosion of joy within myself, since I already knew somehow that this lady was very great, and this was what I had been waiting for. I could not move away now.
‘Why don’t you join us?’ someone suggested. I followed the little party into the cathedral. As we walked, I felt a pleasant tingling sensation rising from my feet, through my legs and throughout my body. I had a feeling in my heart which I can only describe as expansion or fulfilment. The rest of that day was spent in joy and bliss and, from then on, my sickness and depression simply disappeared.”
For the period of about a year-and-a-half after I finally found out how to actually meditate in April 1982 (having put in much effort already for eight years, without benefit) and I moved away from the party neighbourhood of my youth, there seem to be no photos of my amazing progress. Now, by chance, I saw THAT Ed, exactly thirty-four birthdays ago, strolling along with a wedding procession in the heart of New Delhi!
I had arrived alone at 2:00 a.m. in humid Bombay two weeks before, after an exhausting series of flights, with an overweight suitcase and a phone number. It was the first international journey in my quarter century of life on Earth. (Little did I guess then that I would return to India more than twenty times!) Someone back home in Vancouver had just bought my ’65 Chevy panel van, enabling me to join my new yogi friends on the India tour. A kindly airport police officer
helped me reach the others, already a huge, international group of pilgrims, and that very evening I met Shri Mataji, the founder and teacher of Sahaja Yoga meditation, on the first of many joyful occasions over the coming days, years and decades, in various countries.
Among the many memorable events in Delhi was our viewing of the new Gandhi movie in the cinema that it had world premiered in just nine weeks before. (As a girl, Shri Mataji had spent time with Gandhi at his ashram, where he would sometimes implement Her advice on spiritual issues.) I remember walking out of that air-conditioned building and looking up at the hot, wide blue sky, realizing that those historic happenings had taken place not long ago under this very canopy.
I was lucky to be among those few of us from Canada (at that time there were only a handful of people practicing Sahaja Yoga in North America) that were invited to stay for a few days with Shri Mataji in Her daughter’s house. Several massive public programs were held throughout the city, and I attended my first puja, which celebrated Shivaratri at that time. At the compound where we all met each day, someone organized a cake and candles 🎂, and some new friends sang Happy Birthday to me that third day of February … so long ago, now! I drank lots of yummy chai there, discovering too late that the caffein was brutal on my sensitive liver. We also travelled up to the Himalayan foothills, where I saw some Indian girls enjoy snow for the first time. I spent that wonderful month in India without getting sick, a bit of a miracle (although as soon as I got back to the West I cleared out quite thoroughly!)
I still feel all that as a solid building block in my evolution, and this unexpected window view now brings a fresh breeze to grownup Ed.💨
(And, adding an interesting twist to the perspective: I happen to be turning 59 now, the same age Shri Mataji was when we first met back then!)
Shri Mataji gave each of us a present that afternoon (6 Feb 1983)
They were original Indian artworks. Somehow I managed to hold on to mine (the only thing I have left from my early twenties). It now hangs in my little art-studio in our homestead in the Vienna Woods:
(read more here …)
https://edwardsaugstad.com/reaching-the-top-reloaded/
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Posted in 1983, birthday, Ed Saugstad, enlightenment, fulfillment, happiness, India, joy, Kundalini, life, meditation, Shri Mataji, silence, smile, spirituality, thoughtless awareness, well-being, yoga
Tagged birthday, Ed Saugstad, India, Sahaja Yoga meditaion, Shri Mataji
(in case you understand german)
here are a few segments of the recent interview about some of my experiences with Sahaja Yoga meditation:
(more on the YouTube page)
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This is a survey that I recently filled out for a Czech university student:
Hello, this survey was created to collect some information for my final work at school. Thank You for Your time and help. Anna
1. Are You male or female?
Male
2. How old are You?
Over 40
3. How long have You been practicing Sahaja Yoga meditation?
Almost 34 years (every day)
4. Were You born into a family practicing Sahaja Yoga meditation?
No
5. How often do You meditate?
I reach thoughtless awareness (meditation) many times a day
6. Did Sahaja Yoga meditation lower Your stress?
Yes
7. Did Sahaja Yoga meditation reduce some of Your negative personality traits?
Yes
8. Are collective Sahaja Yoga meditation activities important for You?
Yes, a lot
9. How do You participate in Sahaja Yoga meditation? (more answers possible)
I meditate alone at home
I attend seminars in my country
I attend seminars abroad
I attend programs
10. If You used to be a smoker, did You stop smoking with Sahaja Yoga meditation?
Yes
11. Had You ever been addicted (to alcohol, drugs, internet…)? Did it stop when You started practicing Sahaja Yoga meditation?
Yes
12. Is there a difference during Your day, when You were able to get into thoughtless awareness from the days You did not manage?
Yes. If I don’t attain thoughtless awareness often the stress and noisy thoughts build up in me. These dissolve very quickly in the thoughtless awareness state.
13. How did You get into Sahaja Yoga meditation?
A friend found it then told me. (I was one of the first regular 15 or 16 Sahaja Yoga meditation practitioners in North America in 1982)
14. How did meditation help You?
It has improved my life completely and improves it daily, in every way.
15. Try to describe how big importance Sahaja Yoga meditation has in Your life.
It is the most important happening in modern times, not just for me but for everyone, worldwide. Here is the last paragraph of my online testimonial, read already by hundreds of thousands of people:
https://edwardsaugstad.com/reaching-the-top/
“In these few years I have met countless individuals from all walks of life — from London to Calcutta and from Moscow to Los Angeles — who have lived this miraculous metamorphosis and are using this natural power to transform themselves and others. It is my sincerest desire that anyone who reads these words will not judge the message mentally, but will make an honest, scientific investigation into the historic subject which now faces them. If their desire is pure and their determination for revealing the truth is undaunted, I have no doubt that they will also achieve this magnificent inner-awakening which is dawning to the human race.”
16. Did Sahaja Yoga meditation help You with some psychological disorder? What disorder did You have? How did meditation help You?
I was completely damaged by heavy recreational drugs (taken from age 14 to 24) and from a traumatic childhood. I was anti-social, unhealthy and miserably lost in life. Now I am a dynamic, popular global writer, artist and musician, loved and respected by those who come to know me.
17. Did Sahaja Yoga meditation or something related to it cause something negative to You?
It’s impossible for Sahaja Yoga meditation to harm a person. It is a completely natural, gentle and benevolent inner process. Only human beings can harm themselves and each other.
18. Did You feel any new sensation after You received self-realization?
My whole perception changed: clearer, more focused, more peaceful, lighter, more loving — and I am able, on my newly enlightened nervous-system, to feel the flowing divine Vibrations, like a cool breeze, that is only felt emitting from something or someone auspicious, constructive, beautiful, innocent and eternal. (The key to collective consciousness.)
19. Why do You meditate?
Meditation is not a hobby or pastime. It (thoughtless awareness) is a unique, essential state like waking, dream-sleep and deep-sleep. Anyone who does not attain meditation is living a fractured, unfulfilled life.
20. How is Sahaja Yoga meditation different, according to You, compared to any other meditations/religions/spiritual paths?
Sahaja Yoga meditation awakens the natural energy inside us whose only purpose is to connect us to reality, the pure, beautiful all-pervading Spirit. That is meant to be the very most basic and essential process of all spiritual paths.
21. Is there anything more You would like to say? Here is Your opportunity:
from: https://edwardsaugstad.com/reaching-the-top/
“Just over three decades ago, on Tuesday, April 20th, 1982 to be exact, I stumbled up out of a dark place and found myself filled with a permanent light and focus. I still can’t believe my luck. . . . I was born into a large family in a city in Canada. My parents were then chronic alcoholics and most of my memories, which reach back as far as my third year, are dark and fearful. I and two younger brothers were raised mostly by our older sisters. Our parents often fought. When my father left the family he was replaced by a man who I deeply feared as he treated us harshly and sometimes beat my mother. Twice, as a small child, I badly broke my right elbow. The second break was so severe that I almost lost my arm. My mother was not there that time to comfort me as she was being kept in a mental hospital, withdrawing from alcohol addiction. Throughout my early school years …”
Posted in alert mental silence, enlightenment, freedom, fulfillment, happiness, health, hope, humanity, joy, life, love, meditation, silence, smile, spirituality, thoughtless awareness, well-being, yoga
Tagged freedom, hope, Sahaja Yoga Meditation, Shri Mataji
Posted in creativity, fun, Ganesha, happiness, heart, hope, inspiration, life, love, music, smile
Tagged Ed Saugstad, happiness, harp-keyboard, music, one autumn evening, Shri Mataji
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Here was an evening of outstanding creativity and inspiration,
a moment of surprising light
in dark times …
Every age has its greatest discovery.
The greatest of all is inside of us.
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Posted in 2012, alert mental silence, courage, creativity, enlightenment, freedom, friendship, fun, hope, inspiration, joy, life, love, meditation, music, party, smile, spirituality, synchronicity, togetherness, well-being
Tagged generosity, hope, joy, music, Paris, Sahaja Yoga Meditation, Shri Mataji, youth
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It’s never easy losing loved ones (I’ve lost both my parents, Eric and May, as well as my lifetime spiritual teacher, Shri Mataji, in the last couple of years — as told here further down the home page), but sometimes, when the pain has subsided, it’s inspiring to come across unexpected glimpses into special forgotten moments with them. Here’s a recently discovered video that I didn’t even know existed, in which my father happily appears out of the misty past one very special day in 1983. I’ve posted the video here in its entirety because the meditation public program presented is valuable for anyone seeking inner tranquility and balance.
And below is my short image-compilation decorating a song (in praise of the universal, nurturing Mother) written and composed by Shri Mataji — rendered here by the bass player of a famous European gothic-rock band with some friends. (Another version is by the Vienna Boys Choir)
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Posted in enlightenment, hope, inspiration, Kundalini, life, meditation, mental silence, music, spirituality
Tagged 1983, Eric Saugstad, May Saugstad, rebirth, Sahaja Meditation, Shri Mataji, Vancouver
There are moments when we encounter an idea powerful enough to pull us firmly into focus, into the unlimited awareness of where we actually stand here and now. Some of these revelations are interesting, some fascinating — and some can forever change the way we see ourselves and the world we live in.
Here is one such revelation:
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Posted in books, enlightenment, hope, humanity, I Ching, Kundalini, love, mental silence, spirituality, wisdom
Tagged enlightenment, humanity, I Ching, Sahaja Yoga, Shri Mataji