Thursday, June 15, 2006

Say 'No' to Drugs, Turn To Sahaja Yoga for Help




The reason why many turn to substance abuse is that they are unable to deal with life's problems. Or their expectations are unrealistic. Depression and anger, sadness and frustration are further fuelled by drug-dependency, alcoholism or both.

Daniel Goleman, in Emotional Intelligence says that it is the lack of application of intelligence to emotions that makes one lonely and depressed, angry, unruly, prone to worry, more impulsive and aggressive.

A scientific assessment of the emotional and spiritual mind has emerged more recently, trying to understand why we can be reasonable one moment and irrational the very next moment. Goleman attri-buted it to two minds: one emotional and the other rational; one that feels and one that thinks.

The rational mind is prominent in analytical approach while the other one can be impulsive, powerful and at times illogical.

He argues that emotional mind is far quicker than the rational mind making split-second decisions without analytical reflection of the consequences which can be bewildering to the analyti-cally inclined rational mind.

Spiritual teachers like Buddha and Jesus touched their disciples' hearts by speaking the language of emotions. Why is improving the emotional quotient (EQ) or imbibing spiritual intelligence important?

Because it helps us deal with problems in a constructive manner, and deflects us getting addicted to harmful habits like substance abuse.

Family members could take an interest in improving the EQ and spiritual quotient (SQ) of their near and dear ones as an effective way to combat drug abuse. According to Zohar, SQ can be improved by Hinduism's Kundalini Yoga or explained in terms of the lotus model with its centre and six petals.

One way could be yoga and meditation for enhancing one's emotional intelligence and managing stress. To manage stress, we need to leverage intelligence without having to make drastic changes in lifestyle.

Not everyone can retreat to the Himalayas or engage in difficult Hatha Yoga. Sahaja Yoga, founded by Mata Nirmala Devi, which helps achieve self-realisation in a simple and practical manner.

Sahaja Yoga is based on the principle that enlightenment and good health require proper balance between the seven major chakras. According to the Kundalini Chakra system, the dormant force within a person resides in the sacrum bone at the base of the spine.

Mata Nirmala Devi sums up: "En masse inner transformation by self-realisation is the reality now. Sahaja Yoga is the spontaneous union of indivi-dual consciousness with the all-pervading power through the awakening of the residual power of the Kundalini.

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.

The awakening of the inherent dormant energy 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 ner-vous system) and consistent..."