A Bridge to the Heart - By Marie Teresa McDaid

A Bridge to the Heart

Marie Teresa McDaid

A bridge provides connection and passage from one point to another, and spans over obstacles that are difficult to pass. In my hometown, we have a beautiful Peace Bridge that spans from the east to the west bank. The purpose of this bridge was to connect and improve relations between two communities of different religious backgrounds after many years of conflict. When it was completed, some people found it difficult to face the reality of change around amnesty. They found it hard to adapt to a new way of being after unchanged thinking for generations. However, as more people took a leap of faith and crossed the bridge, they gave hope and confidence for others to follow, which brought movement towards change, unity and peace.

“What is being worked out in one sphere is repeated in millions of spheres.

What you see with the planets, the same will it be with this earth, with men, and with all.”

– Swami Vivekananda, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Sometimes it takes years of living with discontentment before we find something that can help us move forward and live a more balanced existence. In the fast pace of life today, we have become more absorbed in the material world; distracted in many ways, we hope these things will bring us ultimate happiness. The mind dominates our lives and gradually we drift and lose connection with our inner heart, where our Beloved resides. Our thoughts, words and actions become detrimental to ourselves and everything around us, their effects lingering and accumulating around the subtle heart, polluting its beauty. The weight of these burdens eventually overwhelms the system as we struggle from day to day with inner torments. After years of wandering around these empty places, we become weary travelers who sit at the door of our heart seeking refuge within. As we peer into the inner caverns, we plead for help. To get over this impasse, we may need to take a leap of faith, with the support and guidance of something we trust.

“He is within us, but we are not within Him. For this purpose, meditation is needed.”

– Babuji, Complete Works vol. 5, p. 163.

I was at this stage that I found that ‘something’, which was Heartfulness. Heartfulness helps me bridge the gap from the door of my heart to its inviting inner chambers, where the Beloved awaits to welcome me home. It walks with and sometimes carries me safely across the bridge, unconditionally accepting and loving me as one of His creation. The practice cleanses and purifies those aspects of me I have become entangled in, gently releasing the knots of inner struggle and fine tuning my system like a musical instrument. It helps me transform the obstacles I have created, as well as the other aspects of my existence. I feel my entire system is synchronizing with the wider world and universe beyond the façade of the material one.

Most beautifully, it has reconnected me to those forgotten places within my heart that teach me something new every day. As the transmission of pure, unconditional love nourishes our hearts, a natural state of love starts to manifest within and without. We build and extend our bridge towards the inner heart using our will and the practice; bound by love, together we work towards the goal of our inner transformation and to reach the shores of our divine home. This is a daily work in progress that requires interest and regularity, for the rewards are great. There are many more crossings to make before we get to the destination. As we are all moving toward the same place, may we build and share bridges of love from heart to heart amongst ourselves and in our communities, worldwide.

-->

Reality of Sahaj Marg

The Sahaj Marg way neither promises marvels nor suggests images that can stir the seeker’s dreams. On the contrary, Sahaj Marg places the seeker face-to-face with a reality: the need to advance with the help of a simple but decisively effective practice. Why would a human being not move towards the discovery of his or her own being? This subtlety of the being is ignored by science, as it is still so far from the material realm; they stand a world apart. 

- Babuji Maharaj

Babuji Maharaj talks about the “Obstacles” of a Negative Material Plane. A seeker on the path of reality has to overcome these and many more obstacles, each step leading to the goal. What has Sahaj Marg, Shri Ram Chandra Mission (www.srcm.org) to offer in this journey of the seeker. Sahaj Marg Raja Yoga meditation practice, the Heartfulness approach, offers the human beings of the 21st century, a simple system of routine and practice that regulates the mind and moderates the tendencies of the human being.

There are no apparent miracles in Sahaj Marg. The Masters of Sahaj Marg, Chariji Maharaj and Shri Kamlesh D. Patel have always emphasised on the simplicity of the approach towards self perfection. How a simple practice of meditation like Sahaj Marg, when coupled with the power of Transmission from the Master, helps in real transformation. This transformation, when it happens, is the real miracle of Sahaj Marg. Such a human transformation has to be worked for, cannot be just dreamt about. It is hard reality and hard work, not just some magic wave of the hand and lo and behold, something new has come out. It is long and drawn out persistent effort, with sincerity and joy driving the efforts and love at the base of everything. That is the reality of Sahaj Marg.

Happiness Inside

By Victor Kannan 
(Sahaj Marg Abhyasi and SRCM Preceptor)


“If you want to have infinite happiness, infinite bliss, then minimise your desires, from more and more to less and less and finally to zero!” – Kamlesh Patel www.daaji.org

This is nothing new but today I got a real glimpse of unhappy people that seem to either live in the past or fantasize their future. The past, they selectively remember and the future that they have no clue of. Yet they think they have been happy in the past or they will be happier in the future if certain careers, cities, houses, cars or vacation were to be pursued.

I have come across people that show their inherent dissatisfaction with the present and start accumulating many things in the pursuit of happiness. They accumulate beyond decency - clothes, shoes, purses, cars and the like only to continue to remain unhappy.  They also blame others for their unhappiness.

Yes, It is a fact that if things outside are in order, one would be comfortable. Nice shoes, clothes, air conditioned cars and plush houses would make us all comfortable. It could also make one feel proud and externally confident. People misunderstand comfort, pride and confidence for happiness. Happiness is not something guarantied by external possessions and achievements.

They forget what Neil Gaiman said  “Wherever you go, you take yourself with you.”

When I was a teenager, it occurred to me that the people are unhappy because they are not willing to be happy.  After perhaps 40 years I am more convinced of that observation. I think we need to cultivate the attitude and the tendency of being happy. This will come about only when we withdraw from the rat race but do the best we can in everything we are involved in; not looking for favor or praise but derive immense satisfaction in doing things right; not waiting for someone to appreciate and notice but noticing and appreciating others as appropriate; it is not to become a recluse but to find joy in one’s own inner self. To be drawn to one’s own inner self quietly and calmly require certain thinking and doing.

Happiness is also to admire nature, participate in its bounty by just being one with it. Have you ever sat quietly during a starry night looking at the sky; have you ever sat on top of a hill and watched the landscape below; have you ever looked at the blue sky and wondered how deep is the blue? The human mind, consciousness and even the brain partakes the essence of nature. So, when we let ourselves be carried away by the simple mergence of ourselves with the quiet grandeur of Nature we find happiness inside. When we let ourselves be carried away by the limitlessness of the sky, the ocean and the starry night, we partake in the infinity of our own selves. When we bring joy and happiness of others, it makes us happy more than anything else we can do for ourselves.
In these lie the wonder and the joy of happiness.

In Search of Realisation

“The practice of Sahaj Marg allows a significant advancement; a true spiritual journey is a real boon for a fervent soul in search of realisation. It cannot be achieved easily and requires genuine commitment on the part of the abhyasi, but you can be sure the result is worth it. A life is not given in vain; it is an element, both tiny and imposing, of this immense creation that is so amazing at all levels. The benefits obtained by practising Sahaj Marg are not yet recognised for their abundant effects. Substantial changes yet to come will further highlight these effects by promoting the evolutionary cycle of life in the world. Everything is so slow 
at the worldly level. The action of Sahaj Marg is geared towards refining the sensitivity of beings incarnated in an Earthly journey that fosters each one’s evolution. None of this is easy to understand, but these matters must be mentioned in order to prepare and further open up the path to knowledge that will become more accessible to all.” 

- Babuji Maharaj

Some of the points raised in this above divine text from Babuji Maharaj, the founder of Sahaj Marg system of Raja Yoga Spiritual Practice are key to observe and understand. The advancement needed to achieve the realisation being talked about here is not obtainable easily. It requires true commitment as Babuji says above, but at the same time, the results produced by the efforts that an abhyasi puts in, is obviously worth it. Unfortunately neither the abhyasi knows nor the world understands or recognises the contributions that Sahaj Marg is making towards these evolutionary changes that are happening. But as Master Chariji and Shri Kamlesh D Patel puts it, these changes are happening at the inner-most core of the hearts of abhyasis and not visible to all. This silent work that happens in anonymity is the signature work of Sahaj Marg and its Masters, Preceptors and Abhyasis. Let us all benefit by this inner work, derive our essence of life itself from the Transmission (Pranahuti) that we receive from our Master, Shri. Kamlesh Patel and the hierarchy of Masters, and most importantly, participate in this divine movement to the best of our possibilities.

Dil ki Awaaz – Shri Kamlesh Patel on Radio City Smaran

Kamlesh Patel, spiritual Master of the Sahaj Marg system of meditation and the current President of SRCM (Shri Ram Chandra Mission), shares his insights to help you lead life in a natural, simple and heartful way, balancing the material and spiritual aspects of existence.

Starting from 18th January 2016, this programme will be broadcast every Monday and Thursday at 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. (IST) for eight weeks on Planet Radio City. Please visit http://www.planetradiocity.com/devotional/radiocity-smaran at this broadcast time to listen to Kamlesh D Patel talk. 

Mangoes with Love – Babuji Maharaj

Once, a group of abhyasis from Andhra Pradesh went to Shahjahanpur and gave mangoes to Rev. Babuji Maharaj. As soon as Babuji Maharaj received the mangoes, he started distributing them to all who were present there.

Someone said, "Babuji, they have brought the mangoes for you with a lot of love".

Babuji Maharaj replied, "I know. That is why I have kept the love with me and distributed the mangoes to others!"

- Narrated by Dr. Sanskrit Kannan

The fundamental essence of Sahaj Marg is Pure Love and nothing else. If you look at it from any angle, Sahaj Marg system of meditation practice culminates in this aspect of love, not as in loving someone or something, but in the essence of becoming the principle of Love itself.

Shri Kamlesh D Patel, the current President of Shri Ram Chandra Mission (www.srcm.org) and successor of Chariji Maharaj recently gave a talk, “Practice with Love”. Without this element of love, the efforts do not bear fruit, as one would expect.

In this beautiful incident mentioned above, Babuji Maharaj teaches us many things. How to identify the essence of things, and how to keep it? How to identify what is important, what is essential? On the path of Sahaj Marg, the abhyasi comes across many experiences and encounters, all of which can be tools for self-correction along the way. The way of Sahaj Marg is a simple path for spiritual aspirants to start developing love in their hearts and to culminate in the very possibility of becoming Love itself. Shri Ram Chandra Mission is the organization that facilitates this possibility.