Origins and Specifics

Authored by Alexis...Translated by Google Translate by 4d-Don...

The best-known form of yoga in the West is Hatha Yoga, which boils down mostly to the practice of Yogic postures. But yoga is much more than a discipline from the Hindu ancestral home (almost 5000 years), whose goal is to achieve the unification of the human being in its physical, mental and spiritual components.

1. From Raja Yoga to Sahaj Marg

Raja Yoga (Royal union or RoyalYoga) is the Yoga outlined in the "Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, the assumed author of that Yoga treatise written between -250 and + 500 years of our era.

It is also called Ashtanga Yoga (8 spoked yoga), which reflects the 8 steps of this path:

* Yama - Code of Conduct, self-restraint
* Niyama - Level religious commitment to the practice, study and devotion
* Āsana - Integration of the mind and body through physical activity
* Pranayama - Control of breathing that leads to intération of mind and body
* Pratyahara - Abstraction of the senses, removal of objects from their perception
* Dharana - Concentration, mind on one thing
* Dhyāna - Meditation: acitvité silent leads to the samadhi
* Samadhi - The state silencing of conscience

Shri Ram Chandra of Shahjahanpur (1899-1983), also known as Babuji, is the founder of Sahaj Marg in 1945, a spiritual teaching said to be the equivalent to Raja Yoga. Its characteristic is to avoid the 6 first steps and to begin with the meditation (step 7-Dhyana), according to Babuji and KC Varadachari. (see article by preceptor of Sahaj Marg)

While Babuji claims Lalaji as a precursor, he hides the Sufi origins of his spiritual thought for the dress of yoga which is much closer to the thoughts of the prominent Hindu, Ramakrishna (1836-86) and Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), who strongly contributed to Hinduism in the West in the early twentieth century, at the same time as (re) discovering yoga (More ...).

According to the material,

"Sahaj Marg is closely related to raja yoga. Few changes were made to the system known thus far by the name of raja yoga-in order to eliminate the superfluous."

Clearly, Sahaj Marg is a major refinement of Raja Yoga.


2. The "Transmission" (pranahuti)

Starting the practice directly at the "meditation", the seventh stage of raja yoga, is apparently made possible only through the transmission, or pranahuti, said to be exclusive to Sahaj Marg, by it's supporters.

The most unique part of Sahaj Marg, would be that the Master assists the aspirant's spiritual progress by pouring divine energy into his/her heart, that will allow its transformation.

From Event Horizon (2002)
Sri Ramchandra Publishers, Secunderabad, AP, India

06.03.58 -p. 167...
Extact from conversation between Babuji and K.C. Varadachari.

"All the different sects of Mahammedanism (72 in all) have Transmission as their base, directly or indirectly."

When one looks closely at this exclusivity of Sahaj Marg, it is a fallacy. The Sufis were already using this technique long ago. And facing the fire of its critics, the advocates of Sahaj Marg recognize that themselves. They then argue that the transmission quality is much better with them than elsewhere. In this exercise, one can say what one wants, because each experience is personal and unique, so not comparable to any other. Clearly, the Sufis can say the same, and we may never resolve the issue.

It should also be noted that the unification of the human being, the goal of yoga, became the Sahaj Marg goal of "unity with the divine". Hence the claim that the great Masters have reached the so-called "central region". Nobody clearly defines nor describes this region. So much so that again, there are many of the gurus who claim to have gone to the central region, from Sahaj Marg and its various (self-appointed?) Masters to Radhasoami, passing through many more ...