Raja Yoga

What is Raja Yoga

Om Shanti is the awareness of our true state of total peace that is the main aim of the teachings of Raja Yoga, an ancient teaching.

Raja Yoga, now taught by the Brahma Kumaris, seeks to help us recognise our original perfect and divine selves and to help make the transformation in our personality, nature and manners to achieve the perfection that was our true nature.

Each soul was divine but over the numerous re-births, we have lost our divinity.

The aim of Raja Yoga, union with the Supreme Soul, is to help us become perfect and masters over ourselves. Masters over our own minds, senses, personality and generally dictate our destiny and avoid being influenced by external events and circumstances.

The Method of achieving that perfection is to establish a direct link or connection with the Supreme Father to remove our defects and acquire virtues to become completely viceless, non-violent and filled with divine talents.

Raja Yoga is not difficult. We just make efforts to form a loving relationship with our Supreme Father in the same way we maintain a relationship of trust and love with our natural fathers. Just as we are all physical images of our fathers, the aim of Raja Yoga is to make us aware that we are spiritual images of the Supreme Father.

In most religions, emotional love for the Supreme Father is cultivated without acquiring wisdom, understanding or personal strength. In Raja Yoga, we are presented with the knowledge that will enable us to make the right personal decisions. Knowledge that is vital to recognise and address difficulties, obstacles and temptations.

Three types of yoga are integrated within Raja Yoga to form a union with the Supreme based on renunciation, knowledge and action.

Renunciation of physical things and relationships are artificial because even though we may avoid them, we may still harbour attractions in our thoughts. It is the thoughts and intellect that must be free from the pulls or attractions of the physical, gross world. The union with the Supreme allows for the highest, natural and unlimited renunciation in thoughts, words and deeds.

Knowledge in Raja Yoga is used develop natural disciplines based on a deep understanding within the soul. Relaxation of the mind is practised rather than indulge in physical postures of the body. Personal determination is needed to avoid being influenced by individuals, events and the environment.

Perfect relaxation can be experienced when we maintain a stage where the mind is totally detached from the body or worldly activities.

Efforts in Raja Yoga are simple with no need for restrictions, rituals or special practices. As we walk, talk, sit, eat or perform any actions, if our thoughts are engaged in the remembrance of the Supreme Father, then Raja Yoga is being performed. This communication with the Supreme Soul will fill us with purity, love and peace. As we remember our Supreme Soul, we get closer toHim and develop a loving relationship.

This relationship will stop us from being influenced by external factors and avoid negativity. We become influenced only by the qualities of our Supreme Father when we make effort to make our mind and thoughts become equal Him.

Unlike other yoga practises, in Raja Yoga, we use knowledge to concentrate on the Supreme Soul and establish the union with the Supreme for self- realisation. We use our thoughts to communicate and follow the instructions "Manmanabhav" meaning "Focus your mind on me".

There is no physical strain, penance, rituals or lengthy practices. No need to stop our minds from thinking. The mind may race but we simply control the direction in which it is going. This simply means to focus our thoughts towards God. Though this may seem easy, it requires discipline and effort to acquire the knowledge of the self, the Supreme and the Love for the Supreme Father.

We need to ponder over the questions on "Who am I? What am I? What are my original qualities? Where is my home? Who is my Father? What is my relationship with Him? What are His qualities? What is His address? What does He do?"

The answers to these questions are provided but we still must ponder over the answers and attempt to speak to our Supreme Father and experience what He is telling us together with His qualities. In the process, our souls will move from ordinary consciousness to soul-consciousness and finally to God-consciousness in three easy steps in the comfort of our homes.

The ultimate aim of Raja Yoga is not just self transformation but the creation of a new world order, a perfect world of truth, purity, love and happiness by simply turning our thoughts, with love, towards the Supreme.

Suggested Thoughts for Meditation

I become aware of my true identity ... I, the soul ... I move away from the pull of the body and the physical world ...

The pull of the Supreme Father is stronger than these others. I come in front of my Supreme Father ... In the presence of Baba, the Incorporeal pinpoint of light ... I experience the blessings of my Father, my Teacher and my Supreme Guru ... the blessings of purity ... of divinity ...

I am filled with the peace from the Ocean ... with the light and might that is within the Supreme ... Naturally, easily I am filled with all that I desire ... for I have met the Supreme Father of all souls and taken from this store ...

And as I go about linked with my Father, I spread those vibrations of light and might into the physical world.

The Three Worlds

Corporeal world is the world we live in where the laws of science and the properties of matter, as determined by scientific research, apply. This is the world of activity that is subject to a cyclic pattern. Due to the human experience of cause and effect, happiness and sorrow is experienced because we reap only what we sow. With our expectations and selfish desires, this is our "Hell".

The activities of this world is similar to the stage in a drama. Each soul, with the appropriate "body" costume plays a role in this unlimited drama where every scene is pre-destined. We have no control over the future. We cannot re-visit the past. All we have is the present to prepare for the future.

Angelic or Subtle World is the world of movement and action but no sound that is beyond our physical world.

Corporeal World is the world beyond the Subtle world that is beyond the physical limitations of time and distance ( space ) that can be perceived and experienced only by the soul, the mind and the intellect. This is the region of the sixth element, a golden-red divine light, known as "Brahm". There is perfect stillness, silence and purity. The souls here are in their inactive state, very much like a seed, in its original form of the self-luminous spark of energy. This is the world of inactivity, a place for rest both physically and spiritually. This is the Home for all souls with the Supreme Soul when they attain liberation. This is heavan.

In the practice of Raja Yoga, it is possible to experience the peace, power and purity of the Incorporeal Home and later return to the Corporeal World totally relaxed and refreshed by the journey.

Om Shanti