Specialty of Sahaj Marg - Cleaning (Revealing the Personality, Chapter 6 by Shri P. Rajagopalachari)

SPECIALTY OF SAHAJ MARG - CLEANING

“Now we are taught to be continuously thinking. We are thinking machines. Thinking has become a habit we are not able to stop. Therefore, even in meditation, thoughts bother us. We cannot stop them. We have no control. We have no regulatory capacity over our own thoughts. 

“But what can I do, Chari? The thoughts bother me.” How do they come? If, in your house, flies are coming into the room, you look for an open window and close it. If there is a stink in your toilet, you look for the source and remove it. How can you be subordinate to your own thoughts? Why not look for the source of your thoughts and remove it?"

— Taken from the book, "Revealing the Personality (2nd edition, 2009)", 

Chapter "Relationships", pg. 52, by Shri. Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari

The most common myth about meditation is that it is very difficult. Why? Because when we close our eyes and try to focus on one thing, hundreds of thoughts intrude our consciousness, disturbing us. The mind flirts from one thing to another so fast that soon we are lost in an ocean of thoughts. But what is the source of these thoughts? Our likes and dislikes, our desires/ temptations and fears - anything that makes an impression on our heart and mind. 

Chariji (the previous SRCM President) explains beautifully in one of his talks that temptations, fears etc. are not in the object, but in ourselves. Two people are not tempted by the same thing. If six men walk on the street, one walks into the bar, another goes behind a woman and four just walk on. Why did the first man get tempted by the bar, the second by the beautiful woman and the other four were unaffected by either of them? Because something inside them are pulled towards these things. Something inside us bind us to our tendencies, desires and fears. And until these are minimized or removed, thoughts about these will disturb us during meditation. 

The Sahaj Marg System of Raja Yoga teaches its aspirants a unique technique called the cleaning. Through this process of cleaning, SRCM abhyasis easily clean these impressions. So when we meditate the next morning, we have lesser number of thoughts that disturb us. And with the help of yogic transmission (pranahuti) and the enormous help that we receive from the current Sahaj Marg Master Shri Kamlesh D. Patel and the hierarchy of the Masters of Sahaj Marg during every meditation and satsangh, the grip that tendencies, desires and fears have on us is minimized. Thus transformation  and evolution becomes very simple. 

Three Instruments of Sahaj Marg - Revealing the Personality, Chapter 5 by P. Rajagopalachari

Three Instruments of Sahaj Marg

“Now how can I avoid guilt except by being, or leading my life in such a way that I don’t have to feel guilty about anything. You know, if I go to a shop and quietly put something in my pocket and walk out, I am a thief. I may not be caught, but I am a thief. Sometime, somewhere I will feel guilty about it. People have been known to send back money to their offices, stolen goods to hotel and restaurants. “Please excuse me, I took this away in 1986, but I feel guilty. I want to return it to you.” People have even sent tax to governments like that. 

So you see, guilt arises out of our own judgment about our own selves. It is not something to do with God or religion or the Pope or the archbishop. We are always tending to blame religion. It’s not religion that makes you feel guilty. It is you who feel guilty about yourself. 

And you can only overcome this by correcting yourself in such a way that the guilt is erased. My Master, Babuji Maharaj said, “What you have done in your past, you cannot change.” Absolutely. It is finished. But does it mean I am condemned? No. Why? Because I have a right to change my life in such a way that the past has no effect upon me - through cleaning, through meditation. Cleaning gets rid of the past, meditation creates the future, remembrance now prevents me from indulging in my fancies. In His remembrance, what I do is always right. 

So you see, the three instruments of Sahaj Marg - cleaning, meditation, constant remembrance - in my mind, they are infallible, unbeatable, totally effective instruments. 

Being new abhyasis, I hope you will all do these things sincerely. It is not done in one day, obviously. So the aim of Sahaj Marg is to make this cleaning possible within, say, a few years, through doses of transmission. Fill you with the divine light. Strengthen you from inside through constant remembrance. Make all circumstances of this life almost totally ineffective as far as you are concerned. They don’t impinge upon you. They don’t create any more impressions upon you. 

So this is the divine possibility that is offered here.”

 — Taken from the book, "Revealing the Personality (2nd edition, 2009)", 

Chapter "Talk to New Abhyasis", pg. 44-45, by Shri. Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari

Guilt is an emotion every one of us feels when we do something against our heart. No one escapes it. And this burden weighs our hearts, becoming heavier and heavier as it piles up. All of us carry this burden that gives us sleepless nights, nightmares and interferes with our interpersonal relationships. But how can this be removed so that our hearts become lighter? 

“What we sow, so we reap,” is a very popular saying. And this is most apt for the life of the soul. Normally, every samskara or karma that is created by our thoughts and actions results in a consequence that we have to undergo in order to remove them from our system. This is called bhoga.

Sahaj Marg teaches its aspirants a special technique called the ‘cleaning process’ that helps them to remove these samskaras by the power of our mind. Thus our hearts become free of all these burdens of guilt, prejudice and other  traits that burden it, free to rise higher and evolve.

As Chariji mentions very beautifully, the three processes in Sahaj Marg (meditation, cleaning and remembrance) are totally effective when practiced sincerely. Cleaning removes the burdens of the past, meditation with the help of transmission helps us to transform our hearts and fill it with love. Constant remembrance of God helps us to be immersed in the heart through out the day, helping us to listen to the inner guidance that would enable us to perform the right action in any situation without forming any impression or samskaras on the heart. 

Now external circumstances do not affect us any more and we can live a life of inner tranquility, peace and love. We can live a blessed life.

Book: Revealing The Personality by Shri Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari (Chariji). Chapter 2: Using the Heart

 Create Love In Your Heart

“Love is not something to be given and taken. It is a wrong idea of love. Love is something to be created in your heart. And when your heart is full of love, you cannot stop people from coming to you, like bees going to flowers. Or, like in India, ants going to the sugar. The sugar does not say, “Come to me, I am sweet. Come to me, I am sweet.” It does not need haircuts or good clothes. Its sweetness attracts. Where is the sweetness in our hearts? Only douleur, pas douceur. 

So if you want to avoid douleur (pain), you must substitute douceur (sweetness), and then you will find beautiful things that spirituality can create in you. And when the heart is full of this douceur, amour (love), even God comes.”

--  Taken from the book, "Revealing the Personality (2nd edition, 2009)", 

Chapter "Using the Heart", pg. 11, by Shri. Parthasarathi Rajagopalachari

The sheer simplicity in which Chariji, the previous SRCM President, reveals to us the solution to most of our problems in life really touched me when I read this chapter for the first time.

All our lives, many of us look outside for love and seek it from others. Sometimes we feel that we treat our friends and family with love and they don’t reciprocate it as per our expectations. Then we get disappointed and there is pain in the heart that blocks us from opening up to them again. And the relationship sours.

The Sahaj Marg system of Yoga teaches us to create love in our hearts and live by it every moment without any expectation. Then a miracle happens that people automatically start becoming attracted to the love they feel inside us. And when the love in our hearts becomes purer and purer, it attracts even God.

In another talk, Chariji describes the Transmission received by Sahaj Marg abhyasis (aspirants) during Meditation as the energy of pure love - an energy that fills our hearts with love and transforms our lives.

It has certainly transformed mine!