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Introduction: What Is Maha Yoga?
All human beings have three distinct elements – body, mind and spirit. All of us are aware of our bodies, and most of us are aware of our minds. However, far too many of us are unaware of the spirit that resides in each one of us. Our normal awareness often extends only to our bodies and to our minds. Only rarely do some of us get the experience of being actually aware of our own spiritual existence. The objective of Yoga is to extend our Awareness beyond our bodies and our minds to the spirit (Prana), the Universal Life Energy (Chaitanya Shakti) that lies dormant in each and every one of us. When our Awareness merges with the Chaitanya we get happiness and satisfaction in all aspects of our lives, eventually leading to eternal bliss. This union of our Awareness with the Chaitanya is the true meaning of the term Yoga, which means “union” in Sanskrit.

The dormant sliver of Chaitanya Shakti, which resides in all of us, is referred to in Yoga terminology as the Kundalini Shakti (Kundalini Energy). Since our brains are usually chockfull of the physical and mental clutter of our day-to-day lives, the Kundalini in most of us gets pushed to the opposite end of our nervous system, the base of our spine (Mooladhara Chakra). There it lies dormant in its subtle form leaving most of us completely unaware of its existence throughout our lives. It is, however, our very own portion of the Chaitanya, which, if activated/awakened/enabled, will eventually find its way to our spiritual center in the brain (Sahasrara Chakra), leading to our own Awareness merging with the Chaitanya – i.e. achieving self-realization.

Over the centuries, philosophers, seers and yogis in India have developed several Yoga approaches to achieving this union. For example, Hatha Yoga, with its emphasis on physical postures (asanas), besides making the body worry-free and supple, was primarily developed to get the mind focused on the slow and deliberate execution of those postures, thereby reducing brain clutter and enabling the yogi’s Awareness to unite with the Chaitanya. Mantra Yoga, which involves chanting a mantra, is intended to achieve the same result by having the mind focus on the chanting and the sound associated with the mantra, thus letting the chanter’s Awareness merge with the Chaitanya. In Bhakti Yoga, or the Yoga of Devotion, the devotee gets so immersed in the object of his devotion that it enables his Awareness eventually to merge completely with the Chaitanya, which the devotee sees manifest as the object of his devotion. Raja Yoga involves getting the Kundalini activated by living a virtuous life and with the diligent practice of Asanas, Pranayam (regulated breathing) and transcendental meditation. Other Yogas also involve similar themes to clear the brain of the physical and mental clutter that usually inhabits it so at to enable our Awareness to merge with the Chaitanya.

While it is possible to have one’s Kundalini be awakened, and for our Awareness to get merged eventually with the Chaitanya, solely through the rigorous practice of one or more Yogas or other spiritual/religious paths, it is a very difficult and arduous undertaking. Most of us do not have the patience and the diligence required, nor do we have the appropriate Gurus (teachers) to guide us along those paths. As a result, in this day and age, very few of us are able to achieve the happiness and the eternal bliss of having our Awareness be merged with the Chaitanya.

There is, however, another Yoga path available, the easy and simple path of Maha/Siddha Yoga. Under this approach a Siddha Guru (Spiritual Master) through his grace and through the sheer power of his will, absorbs all the negative Karma (results of past actions) of his disciple, and during initiation awakens the dormant Kundalini Shakti in his disciple. Anyone desirous of such an initiation (Deeksha) does not have to do anything other than pray and request, in all earnestness, for such a favor from a Siddha Guru, have faith in the Siddha Guru, and follow the Guru’s simple instructions at the time of initiation. Once the Kundalini is awakened during initiation, the intrinsic power of the Kundalini begins its work, which through regular meditation (sadhan) will lead the initiated (sadhak) through amazing spiritual experiences and eventually to Self-Realization, i.e. the merger of his Awareness with the Chaitanya.

The tradition of Siddha Yoga is an ancient one, having been passed down over the centuries in India by Siddha Gurus to their disciples. It is described in the ancient Indian texts - the Vedas and the Puranas, in Lord Shri Krishna’s Bhagwad Geeta, and even in more recent (13th century) works of Shri Jnaneshwar Maharaj. The sage Shri Vasishtha is known to have initiated Lord Shri Rama into this path as did Lord Shri Krishna initiate Arjuna as stated in the Mahabharata. Shri Jnaneshwar Maharaj was also thus initiated by his spiritual master, Shri Nivruttinath Maharaj. Likewise, Shri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, by a mere touch, graced Swami Vivekananda with the spiritual power that eventually led him to Self-Realization. This ancient tradition continues to this day through a few Siddha Gurus primarily situated in India, but has been made available in recent years to initiates all over the world.

As mentioned earlier, the important difference between Siddha/Maha Yoga and other Yoga paths is that while followers of other approaches have to make strenuous efforts under the careful direction of appropriate Gurus in order to achieve Self-Realization, followers of Maha Yoga, once initiated, do not need to undertake such arduous efforts. During sadhan, a Maha Yoga initiate will automatically experience the physical and mental practices of other Yoga or spiritual paths depending on the specific requirements of his body, mind and the accumulated impressions of his past deeds (Karma). If an initiate needs specific Asanas and Pranayam (regulated breathing) to purify his body, mind and spirit (Prana), these Yogic practices will happen automatically. If the initiate needs a mantra, he will receive it in a dream or through divine utterances during sadhan. The initiate will also find his spiritual progress getting accelerated and he will be able to attain deeper meditative stages than he had experienced before. Like-wise it is also observed that initiates automatically give up bad habits and addictions, and their eating and sleeping habits also change for the better. In other words, once awakened by a Siddha Guru, the awakened Kundalini Shakti becomes the initiate’s Guru, and during his sadhan and otherwise, helps direct his actions and practices to enable him to make rapid and significant progress toward Self-Realization.

Mahayoga - Uniqueness and Benefits We humans try to commune with God in many different ways. Many of us think of God as some kind of a super-human being with a body, who resides in Heaven, and supervises and governs the affairs of this world from a distance. Most of those who believe in this notion of God pray to him for material and spiritual benefits and some even try to meditate on Him in prayer. In most cases, this approach does not lead to communing with God, although the very notion of submission to a Divine Entity (God) helps a person reduce his ego and benefits him spiritually to some extent. It can result in communion with God only in those extremely rare situations when a person completely and unconditionally surrenders his body and mind (and thus his ego) to a seemingly external God, but in doing so pulls aside the physical and mental curtains that have kept him from being aware of God (Brahman) who has been residing within himself all this time.

Others, who have a philosophical approach to religion, try to think of God as a negation of the objective world. They try to keep their minds vacant and free from all worldly thoughts, thinking of God as an all-pervading abstraction as they attempt to commune with the sense of void (Shunyata) they believe He represents. This approach is exemplified by Jain and Buddhist philosophers some of whom have gone to the point of denying the very existence of God. In most cases this approach too does not result in communion with God because it relies on a person being able to conceptualize nothingness which is beyond the capabilities of our material minds. In those rare cases, when a seeker has become capable of losing awareness of his body and calming his mind after years of rigorous physical and mental practices, he experiences brief periods of complete mental stillness when he actually becomes aware of God (Brahman) within himself, but which his mind, when it becomes active again, interprets it as having experienced nothingness (Shunyata).

To a student of Yoga and Vedanta, the concept of God, or Brahman, is not a sense of void or abstract negation. God, or Brahman, to a Yogi is Sat-Chit-Anand – existence, consciousness and absolute bliss, the triple oneness! He is the omnipresent existence that pervades everything and underlies all visible/invisible and living/non-living objects, the basis on which all names and forms of objective creation appear to exist and move. Unfortunately, communing with God by developing a mental picture of the concept of God is also next to impossible, because our limited and finite minds are incapable of rationally grasping such a concept, and when we try to do so we inevitably move in the direction of thinking of God as an external presence or as voidness (Shunyata). Attempting to commune with God (Brahman) using our mind as a tool is like attempting to fly using a bicycle! It is the wrong device.

Some Yoga paths get around this problem by suggesting ways for fixing one’s mind on one’s own abstract and conscious self, with the idea that since one’s consciousness is also a manifestation of the Absolute Consciousness, focusing one’s mind on one’s own consciousness will eventually lead to communion with the Absolute Consciousness or Brahman. These practices can lead to communion with God but they also require years of diligent, rigorous and supervised efforts. Additionally, because these paths have the seeker actively “doing” the practices, the seeker’s ego tends to remain active and it often becomes very difficult for the seeker to let go of his ego as long as he remains the “doer”. And as long as the seeker’s ego remains active, his awareness of himself as a distinct entity keeps his awareness from merging with Brahman and thus from communing with God.

The Maha Yoga approach to communing with God (enlightenment) is quite different from these approaches. It is based on the understanding that God is not some kind of a super-human being who resides in a separate place called Heaven, but is in fact present in all of us, right here on this earth. Nor is God a negation of the objective world or “nothingness”, but is in fact the Brahman or Sat-Chit-Anand of the Yogi, the omnipresent existence that pervades and supports all objective creation.

But if God (Brahman) resides in all of us, why is it that most of us do not have the experiential awareness of God within us? This is because our constant preoccupation with our bodies, our minds and the material world results in us creating opaque covers/curtains (Koshas) that keeps us from actually experiencing God within us. Only when we are able to lose awareness of our bodies and our minds do we become capable of such an experience. Other Yoga approaches attempt to achieve this by focusing on the body or on the mind, but these methods are only effective when they can take us beyond the physical and mental planes on which they are based, which can only happen in extremely rare instances and only after years of rigorous practices.

Maha Yoga, on the other hand, explicitly recognizes the limitations of our bodies and minds to transcend themselves, and instead relies on a Siddha Guru giving a Sadhak (seeker) the actual experience of communing with God within the Sadhak himself. Such a Siddha Guru is someone whose awareness is constantly in Brahman, or Absolute Consciousness, giving him the ability to awaken the essence of Brahman in the Sadhak, i.e. the Sadhak’s Kundalini Shakti. Once a Sadhak’s Kundalini becomes awakened he experiences the blissful peace which saturates his body and his mind and he feels the tangible presence of God within himself.

All a Sadhak has to do following such an awakening is to sit for Sadhan diligently and regularly and to allow the awakened Kundalini Shakti to do what is needed for him to progress spiritually. The awakened Kundalini Shakti becomes his guide, and during Sadhan, and even otherwise, guides him through Yogic and other activities (physical and mental Kriyas) that take him along a path toward enlightenment. During Maha Yoga Sadhan the Sadhak should not “do” anything with intent, but he should sit quietly and in a relaxed state and observe the automatic physical and mental activities that happen to him. His attitude should be that of an “observer” (Sakshi) not a “doer” (Karta). Maha Yoga Sadhaks thus avoid the trap of remaining in the ego state, common to other paths which require the Sadhak to be the “doer” of various practices.

With diligent Sadhan, the awakened Kundalini spiritualizes the Maha Yoga Sadhak’s body and mind and takes him to a state where he begins to feel the presence of God within himself and in all creation and at all times. To such a person, God is not an external super-human being, nor an abstract idea or a negative concept such as “nothingness” (Shunyata), but a positive reality whose presence he experiences all the time. Such a communion with God surpasses all others and is therefore called Maha Yoga.

''' What Is Initiation (Deeksha)? '''

The key to Maha/Siddha Yoga is to have one’s dormant Kundalini Energy be awakened by a Siddha Guru. This is usually done during an Initiation (Deeksha) when the Siddha Guru transmits his spiritual energy to the disciple either through touch, word (mantra), glance, or simply through sheer will power. The basic principle underlying these four ways is ultimately the will of the Siddha Guru, with the first three being nothing more than different modes for manifesting the Guru’s will. The transmission of spiritual power by the Siddha Guru to the person being initiated is also called Shaktipat, or the descent of spiritual energy – i.e. the descent of spiritual energy from the Guru to the initiated.

In addition to having a Siddha Guru willing to initiate an aspirant into Siddha/Maha Yoga, it is very important for the aspirant himself to have an earnest desire to get initiated and have faith in the Siddha Guru. When these elements are present, an aspirant can get initiated in his/her own home, even without being in the physical presence of a Siddha Guru. By making an earnest request for initiation through a letter/fax/e-mail and fixing a date and time for initiation, an aspirant can get initiated half-way across the world. Some aspirants even get initiated simply by participating in spiritual congregations of initiates during their meditation sessions (sadhan). Others have been known to have received initiation just by reading books on Siddha/Maha Yoga.

Formal Maha Yoga initiation is available to all aspirants without regard to age, sex, religion, race, caste or creed. The aspirant should have an intense desire to obtain direct and actual spiritual experiences that will lead him/her to enlightenment. The aspirant should also be willing to follow certain dietary rules and other restrictions that are intended to ensure rapid and ongoing spiritual progress. The consumption of mind-altering items such as alcohol, drugs and tobacco and non-vegetarian foods (meat and eggs) and enhancers such as onions and garlic are considered to retard spiritual growth and should therefore be avoided following initiation. The aspirant should also be willing to devote one hour every day for spiritual practice/meditation (sadhan).

Those aspirants meeting the above criteria should send a request for initiation by letter/fax or fill out the application form available here. They will receive an initiation letter with instructions for preparing for initiation on the designated day and time.