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SAHAJA YOGA (Socializing Processes in a South Asian New Religious Movement ) JUDITH CANEY
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INTRODUCTION:-One spring afternoon in 1992, a Norwegian friend who was living in my village for a year whilast he completed a Master of Business Administration at Bath Univeraity dropped over for caffee. After exchanging the usual set of pleasantries about the weather & a comments about the local primary school, he introduced a new topic into the conversation. Knowing my interest in new religions, he said, was I aware that some people in the next village were ‘giving cool breezes’? I confessed my ignorance & pressed him for details. One, a woman called Jane,1 he given him a sort of massage and as a result he had felt a cool breeze on the top of his head. “I really did, you know!” he want on, looking slightly uncomfortable, as if he did not quite believe it himself. “What’s it all about?’’ This book in my attempt, as a sociologist of religion, to answer the question raised by my friend that day. It is about Sahaja Yoga, the new religious movement (NRM) whose member was responsible for the ‘cool breezes’ which he felt. The book is an investigation into the socialization of members of Sadaja Yoga. It examines how it is that people feel cool breezes as a result of their contact with Sahaja Yoga. And how, gradually, at least some come to accelt the spiritual claims of the leader, Sri Mataji Nirmala Devi & become utterly committed members. It looks at how newcomers adopt the social conventions of the movement, which are quite different from those operating in mainstream Western society, and how the understandings that are learnt in the movement continue to affect those who leave. It is an endeavour to comprehend how individuals experience & believe things in certin situations which they might have rejected out of hand in other circumstances. This book explores how new ways of seeing the world are constructed & sustained. In the book, I challenge the stereotypical view that people in NRMs are automatons, stripped of their personalities & content to mouth the words of thir leader. Instead, I argue that members of Sahaja Yoga hold different views about the beliefs, practices and history of the movement, and about the guru, Sri Mataji Nirmala Devi. Of course, the idea that individuals can hold dissimilar views about the same thing is hardly new. Reality constructions differ, we know according to the structural position of the viewer. Indeed, a number of scholars have already observed that there are a variety of standpoints about NRMs which exhibit patterned variation (Beckford1985; Barker 1993b). For any give NRM, a sociologist of religion may view it as a group with a dominant ‘worldreiecting’, ‘world-accommodating’ or world-affirming’ orientation (Wallis 1984); the tabloid press are likely to portray it as a ‘mind-bending cult’; the anti-culi movement will characterise it as a soul or psyche-destroying organisation practising ‘mental coercion & causing heartbreak to thousanda of families; anex-member may see it is a grup which fails to live entirely up to its precepts; peripheral members may see it as an organisation which has had a beneflicial influence in their lives but one which they feel no need to devote themselves to wholeheartedly; and the more committed member is likely to see it as the epicentre of spiritual transformation in the world. Each view is formulated on the basis of different considerations which have implications in the selection of the information considered relevant to that standpoint (Barker 1993b). In turn, this selection process reinforces the position held, whether it is the ‘objectivity’ of the academic, the ‘faith’ of the devotee or the ‘grave concerns’ of the anti-cult movement.
Rs..595/=SHIVA SUTRAS (Commentary by H.H. SRI SRI Ravi Shankar)
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yasya niscasita veda yo vedebhyo akhila jagat nirmama tamaha vande vidyatirtha mahesvara In order to fly a kite & guide it feom the ground, we need a thin thread. While this thread stays on the ground, the kite soars in the air. That thread is a sutra. Likewise, for our life to soar higher & expand into the vastness of infinity, what is needed? We need a sutra that acts as a link between earth & sky, between humanity & Divinity. Panini describes a sutra as: Alpak aramasa digdha saravat visvato mukha Astobhamanavadya ca sutra sutravido vidu “Alpak ara asa digdha saravat visvato mukha” – A sutra is described as that which contains the essence & expresses the full meaning in a few words. The nature of the sutra we hold on to decides the direction & the quality of our life. In everyone’s life there is some spark of goodness or auapiciusness. We should reflect whether we are holding on to the good & positive or misfortune & negativity. Regardless of which part we tend to focus on, if we search we can definitely find happiness, pleasure & fortune in some measure. Yet, if you look now, this is not the case. Actually, there is so much that is positive. Life is made up of eighty percent positivity & only twenty percent negativity, the part that causes problems. Yet we make this twenty percent into two thousand percent; usually, we cling to the negative.
249/=SIVA the Siva purana retold (RAMESH MENON) To Ramana Maharishi
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The late Parameshwara Iyer, who translated the entire Siva Purana into English from the Sankrit for Motilal Banarsidass, was my teacher for a time. If not for his painstaking endeavour, this book, whichis based upon his scholarly translation, would have never been wriyyen. Katya Osbrone not only edited this but suggested some important changes. Many thanks to her and to Deepthi Talwar, whose fine eye for detail and sure pen are a source of great comfort.
295/=SRI CHITANYA'S VAISNAVISM AND ITS SOURCES (BY K. P. SINHA)
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Sri Caitanya's Vaisnavism has by now gained a world-wide popularity and has attracted devotees from almost all the coeners of the globe. His philosophy has, however, been interpreted by some thinkers in a different way, giving rise to doubts about the real nature of the philosophy. We have, therefore, ventured in this work to present an exposition of Sri Caitanya's philosophy from our point of view.
360/=SRI CHITANYA'S VAISNAVISM AND ITS SOURCES (BY K. P. SINHA)
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This book is divided into two parts. The first part contains an exposition of the philosophy of Sri Cattanya. While the sccond part is devotedto the exposition of the philosophy of the sources of Sri Cailanya's philosophy-the Vedas. the Upanisads. the Brsha-sutra. the Pancaratra system. the Bhagavata Purana and the Bhagavad Gita.
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