Why We Need to Get Connected to God

The word religion is derived from the Latin word religare that means, "to connect"; the word yoga is derived from the word yuj that also means the same. So spirituality is all about getting connected to God.

Yoga is now a universally sought-out medium and spirituality as a subject has become part of the curriculum of leading B-schools in the US. What is the reason for the resurgence of spirituality?

There are three interpretations: One school cites that in the modern era an organisation needs to innovate continuously to survive for which every individual stakeholder in the organisation needs to leverage his creative energy by connecting to God's own creative energy. The other school feels that the sudden eruption of numerous corporate scandals worldwide is due to the lack of an appropriate value system. Hence the need to incorporate spirituality in the business curriculum apart from outlining the need for an evolution in the field of corporate governance. The third school says that yoga explains the connect of mind to body and this helps tackle today's serious problems of stress at the workplace, home or even school.

How necessary is it for us to "know" God? Do we establish a direct connection or should we leave it to the operational expertise of middlemen like pundits and priests? There's this story of a sadhu who goes to the Himalayas and brags that he, a mere mortal, knows its strengths and glory while it (the mountain range) is still ignorant. The mighty mountain replies that it is content just "being" the Himalayas rather than "knowing" about the Himalayas. Obviously one would prefer to get connected than obtain mere knowledge. But how does one know that one is connected? And why get connected at all?

Modern conceptions about the mind and consciousness do not go beyond the ability to perceive through the senses as the result of bio-chemical processes of the brain. But Indian scriptures mention that Kundalini is the super intelligent energy behind consciousness and therefore is the evolutionary mechanism that determines the capacity of the brain. The key to achieving higher levels of awareness or the way to get connected to God lies in tapping this latent energy in an individual. By rousing their Kundalini energy, kings of yore made available to themselves a far more potent source of power vis-a-vis their adversaries and in order to enable them to deal better with day-to-day administrative affairs and to look after the welfare of subjects. The founder of Sahaja Yoga, Mataji Nirmala Devi, sums up the approach succinctly: "Just as an egg gets transformed into a bird or a seed into a plant, Sahaja Yoga helps transformation of a person to a higher awareness level. This is accomplished when a dormant force within a person (called Kundalini) which resides in the sacrum bone is awakened and drawn through various energy centres, which describe awareness levels in the subtle body. It can be accomplished in a practical and simple manner — a Sahaja yogi would facilitate this — and the resulting state is both verifiable (in the central nervous system) and consistent..."

Such an evolution can facilitate one to feel the chakras in his nervous system and go about correcting imbalances and curing diseases. This will enhance balance in the central nervous system leading to stress relief and mental relaxation. It will also improve concentration and communication skills and will help one in developing the technique of managing by detached involvement. Obviously there is merit in getting connected to God even for managing one's day-to-day activities