Since I have been in Sahaja Yoga, a new dimension has opened in my life and the whole universe becomes so peaceful and meaningful. Through Sahaja Yoga, great knowledge has been given to me. I feel I am taught to solve life puzzles and to fight negativity in and around me. My mind has been purified in a way, I feel much cleaner, lighter and very joyful in this adventure that we call life. -Ljiljana -

For years I had been looking for some answers to make sense of my life. I believed, hoped, that I would find some truth through spirituality. Everything I tried was unsatisfying and, in despair, I gave up.

Soon after that, quite unexpectedly, someone told me about Sahaja Yoga and gave me the experience of self-realisation. There were no sensational happenings, no drums and cymbals, just a cool breeze on my head and hands and a feeling that, just perhaps, something profoundly important had taken place. I was very curious but also wary. I decided to go to meditation programs to find out more and to really test the authenticity of Sahaja Yoga.

Within a few weeks of daily meditation there was a change in me which was noticeable to others. I was calmer and my children (who were also meditating) were more settled. So far this meditation was better than anything else I had tried. My first deep experience occurred at this time while I was looking at a photo of Shri Mataji and wondering about Her. She looked so compassionate. All at once there was an overwhelming sense of infinite motherly love and deep comfort. I saw the golden Kundalini around Her and recognised its reflection within my own self. This was the direct and personal spiritual experience I had desired.

Since then, I have meditated every day. Sometimes it is deep and joyful, sometimes not. But over the last seven and a half years my life has been completely transformed and, at times, I experience such joy and peace that it moves me to tears. Overall, I am stronger and more balanced. I enjoy life. I have been able to forgive the past, which would have been impossible eight years ago. I feel so very, very fortunate to have found some of the answers I was seeking. Now, with a peaceful heart, I can watch life unfold around me and know that I have the strength to handle the challenges. I understand myself better now and can begin to understand a little of the purpose of my life. - Susanne -

Sahaja Yoga has enabled me to actualise God as an experience, rather than a belief system. Free of dogma, my spirituality is now a reality rather than a hypothesis to be continually justified.

By meditating daily I am able to put all the dramas, trials and tribulations that used to dominate and effect my feelings and moods into perspective. Every day is enjoyable even if outcomes do not meet my preconceived expectations.

I find I am completely detached from family problems and find every day a wonderful journey, with complete confidence in myself.

During meditation I have this overwhelming state of consciousness where I feel completely integrated into the universe and its energy right down to the last sub atomic particle through to the vastness of space and the incredible, infinite energy it contains.

My link with nature is much stronger than before I begun Sahaja Yoga and realising the genuine power of the universe is the source of myself, my link to enjoying every moment and my worth as a human being.

My business and personal life has now become extremely happy, joyful and successful. My professional reputation is now known internationally because of the steadiness and self-esteem I have gained from Sahaja Yoga and the open heart and humour I am able to utilise when dealing with people in my daily life. - Garry -

I have been in Sahaja Yoga for about three years. My whole family, my wife, my daughter and my son, we all practice daily meditation and we all live in love and harmony.

When I meditate I feel I am out of this world. My body loses its weight, I feel as I don't have it. It becomes the less important part of my being. I realise my true nature, my higher being, my real self.

I stop feeling any discomfort, any fear, any worries or anything else that might disturb my peace and my balance. The times stops. The thoughts disappear in infinite silence.

I feel balance between myself and the universe. The pleasure I feel can't be explained in words. You have to feel it if you want to know it. - Dragan -

Sahaja Yoga meditation is my life. It has transformed me and is transforming me. It is my energy and my awareness of self. It is both a discipline and the source of my joy. It gives me the power to not only transform myself but also to transform the world around me in very subtle ways.

Having said this, I am still not without faults and occasionally I slide and regress into past conditionings. At other times, when my meditations are strong I progress rapidly, in mental clarity and into a finer sense of emotion and feeling that is positive and uplifting for others as well as myself. In years and years of seeking truth, of making errors and many mistakes in living, nothing has ever been so effective and practical as Sahaja Yoga. - Chris -

From the beginning of my meditation, that is, when I first began to meditate, I felt home. Completely satisfied like my body and soul had found the answer I had until then thought I would never find. - Kitty -

Seven years ago I experienced a great need to fill a huge gaping hole in my life. A pain that wouldn't leave with all the usual fillers, money, clothes, marriage, children, the list is long. Meditation fell into my lap, since that very moment that hole was filled. The feeling of not fitting in, something missing, started to disappear.

I couldn't wait to wake in the morning and sit down to meditation. The feeling of peace and stillness inside completely filled my entire being. Tears would run down my face out of absolute joy, it just left like I was home at last. My health wasn't so bad but the feeling of being well has stayed, my relationships have grown, my understanding of emotional problems has changed so much, family problems have dissolved. Meditating everyday helps to keep these connections, keep the feeling of oneness and balance in my life being part of the whole world, knowing who you really are! - Janet -

Detachment. Detachment from the thought process. This is the quality that I value most of all of the benefits I have experienced since I began sitting for meditation morning and evening, every day, nine years ago. For the first forty-seven years of my life I had learned to value thinking above everything. Think before you speak, think it through, think for yourself, think, think, think as if thinking is the peak of evolutionary achievement! I have a cast of characters in my poor head that would keep a playhouse rented out for years if the script was any good. I even did a course in thinking - and taught it to others. Imagine my surprise on discovering the joy of life without thought. There is a universe of delight above my head and in my heart, which is my birthright and never knew about it. But from the moment I was shown how to use the dormant energy in my spine to take my attention above my mind, my heart opened and I began to experience living in the flow of loving appreciation of life rather than in the constant emotional shock and judgemental turmoil of my previous years.

I didn't step whole from one lifestyle to the other. Some days I'm more as I was than as I am becoming. The light is always shining now though, however dim my eyesight, so even if I do or say something which hurts myself or another, within a short time I see what I've done and have techniques at my fingertips with which to clean myself and make reparation. I bring my attention back to the centre of my being, where there is silence. The thoughts slow right down, the space between them gets longer and I experience myself as a tiny dot in the centre of a vast ocean of pure, cool lovingness. My body awareness recedes, except for those parts that are out of balance and I feel this energy soothing me down, gradually working through the blocks in my physical system. I have had many cures of minor ailments such as headaches, infections etc.

When I first began, four toes on each foot were permanently bent, curled under. Gradually they have straightened. There's one more to go but I know it too will be restored to the correct alignment. As my body settles I notice my emotions calm and the thoughts change from accusing to supportive. I see the good in myself and others I have been with. Gradually even these thoughts slow right down; my awareness of time recedes and I am in the joy once more. I get flashes of insight sometimes, solutions to problems, images for my paintings; none of which come form me, I know. They seem to come from somewhere above my head and manifest through my energy centres later as desire preceding action.

This doesn't happen every day. I never know when it will. Sometimes I sit and all I get is static from old thought patterns, or I get sleepy or fidgety and have to get up unsatisfied. Gradually though, I see and feel my heart taking charge of my brain and my mind with all its characters, coming in second. So the incentive is always there. I want more of the joy. I've even experienced going to bed tired, can't be bothered; then being so restless I have to get up again for meditation. In my daily life, my relationships with others are much happier because even when there's a problem I know there's a solution waiting to come to me. I can even watch the news with detachment and pray for the wrongs to be resolved whereas before I wouldn't read the newspaper because I became too emotionally upset and would go over and over in my mind the injustices and the horror described there. This peace is available to anyone who wants it. I'm an ex-teacher, housewife and artist, everyone I've met, regardless of background, has been able to experience it if they've wanted to. - Christine -

When I meditate I come into a peaceful balance within myself. I cannot dishonour the loving Mother within by being unforgiving, angry or uncaring. I cannot be amoral or do harm to myself or others.

I feel the comfort of finally knowing my place, my power, my peace. As I change, all those around me subtly change reflecting that divinity which lies dormant in us all and is activated by this simple activity of meditation. - Maxine -

Searching, always searching for what? TO KNOW THYSELF. To understand the purpose of my existence. Searching for this connection through established mainstream religions and finding that fear not freedom was their driving force, that dogma and doctrine and upholding the status quo were more important than authentic meaningful experiences. In short discovering that there was a lot of "headstuff" but very little heartfelt truth or expression.

Searching to become whole through the multitude of "new-age" therapies and workshops and finding out that the touchie-feelie, feelgood jargon soothed for a while but ultimately lacked substance and gravity.

Deciding to STOP looking outside of myself and to just sit and be quiet and be still and then it began to happen. A gateway opened and I felt myself entering a new dimension, deeper spaces than I had ever experienced before and I just knew this was it and I just knew beyond any doubt that I was connected to all things and all things were connected to me, we were one. How did I know? Because I felt (physically felt on my central nervous system) this energy rise from the base of my spine and pour out like a fountain, from the top of my head, and it went higher and higher and I felt myself expanding, and I was no more the person I had projected myself to be, but I was something much greater. This greatness did not come from me but it was flowing through me, and it was such a blissful experience, one of total joy. I had no more questions. I just meditated and bathed in this divine awareness.

After some months of experiencing these blissful meditations, I awoke one morning and said to myself, this is great but wouldn't it be nice to meditate with other like-spirited people. That very day I stumbled upon a Sahaja Yoga Meditation Stall at the local fair and another gateway opened. That was about 11 years ago and since then I have continued to stumble into many amazing things…and I have learnt some of the power of my inner spirit to lead me to places I never knew of, if I am open and attentive to it.

More and more I have become open and attentive to my inner self, no more the waxing and waning, the highs and lows, one day feeling spiritually high, the next bereft. Now instead a steady flow of balanced energy, now more centered, less reactive, able to bring my attention inside, away from the thousand and one distractions that used to keep my awareness externalised on unimportant things.

Through this inner connection, I have experienced many miracles since. None more so than meeting my wife through Sahaja Yoga. It is a blessing that I cannot fully express in words. She is such a beautiful gift in my life. We share a deep and abiding love. The meditation takes us beyond our own ego and allows us to witness each other without reacting. This brings great freedom and joy and this love extends out to others in a very powerful and dynamic way. I don't feel helpless but instead am aware that my positive attention and love towards someone can and does transform them.

Everything is much clearer. I have become more creative and more in awe of the beauty that surrounds me, and that moves me in a profound way. - Martin -