Out of India, Sahaja Yoga captures Petersburgers

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#928, Tuesday, December 16, 2003TOP STORY Out of India, Sahaja Yoga Captures Petersburgers

By Irina TitovaSTAFF WRITERPhoto by ALEXANDER BELENKY/SPT

Every Tuesday about 500 St. Petersburg residents gather to meditate and think about good things in the hall of the Okhta cinema theater outside the Novocherkasskaya metro station.

Sitting or standing still, some dressed in Indian clothing, others dressed in regular Western attire, they focus on their energy impulses.

The city has about 1,000 adherents of the Sahaja Yoga movement that originated in India, and they strongly believe that it's one of the purest and helpful methods for self-development.

Once a year, those who can afford it go to India or other countries where the movement organizes its festivals.

Mila Kapalkina, 43, an engineer, joined the movement about eight years ago "because it helped her to find the sense of life."

"Before that I was thinking and thinking about this: what is the meaning of life?" Kapalkina said. "Just to eat, live and die? And it was hard for me to think like that, and I had fears inside."

After joining Sahaja Yoga she found "harmony with the world" and "learned to observe difficulties from outside and avoid conflicts," she said.

Adherents describe the movement as "a unique method of self-perfection, self-realization, giving an opportunity for positive transformation of personality and society, which is based on the principles of good, peace and love." It was developed by Indian woman Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi in 1970.

Part of its practice is taken from yoga exercises that are intended to promote control of the body and mind. Sahaja Yoga means the union of an invidual with the cosmos.

Today the movement has spread to more than 90 countries.

Sahaja Yoga came to Russia in 1989, which has since become one of the main centers of the movement.

In Russia it is represented in different cities, including big groups in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

According to its teaching, Sahaja Yoga is not a religion but rather a philosophy. Most adherents in Russia are Orthodox Christians.

It is not the only group with Indian roots flourishing in Russia - Hare Krishnas and several other Indian-influenced movements are a regular sight on the streets of the country's main cities.

Asked why Indian philosophy appeals to them, adherents said that modern civilization has its roots in the subcontinent.

People belonging to the movement do not obviously and actively persuade other people, but they are ready to provide information to those interested.

Sahaja Yoga is also viewed as a spiritual science of the sophisticated human energy system, which is said to be connected with the nervous system and carry the evolution of the highest moral principles.

Vitaly Yermakov, 30, joined Sahaja Yoga when he was 22, when he suddenly realized that he "wasn't a perfect human being."

"At that time I was disappointed in people and in myself," Yermakov said.

Sahaja Yoga taught him to "be calm, generous, and enjoy life," he said.

Vera Babayeva, 43, accountant, said she had felt a loneliness inside since her early childhood, which was difficult.

"When I turned 30, I felt it was a turning point in my life, when I was to change something," Babayeva said. "I didn't know what it should be and went to search for it at different sources, even to telepathists. However, I found the right road only when joining Sahaja Yoga."

The reasons people come to Sahaja Yoga are different, she added. Some are looking for the ways to improve their health, others want to find ways to solve their life problems, and the third are just looking for something new.

Sahaja Yoga is based on an experience adherents call self-realization (kundalini awakening) that can occur within each human being.

Through this process, an inner transformation takes place by which one becomes moral, united, integrated and balanced.

During the action of self-realization one can feel the all-pervading divine power as a cool breeze, Babayaeva said. That's when people get rid of their negative energy and open their spiritual and physical channels to positive and good, she added.

Sahaja Yoga teaches people how to solve problems in life, Babayeva said.

"It's a method which teaches how to turn the bad energy directed a you into good energy," she said.

According to Sahaja Yoga, a person should not react in kind to people who disagree with or argue with them, but treat those people as if they are children.

Vladislav Kanunnikov, 58, a teacher who joined the movement 15 years ago, said the movement has taught him to respect himself and others, remove obstacles in his life, and understand his life goals.

"It helped me get rid of bad features of my character such as laziness and also of fears," Kanunnikov said.

He said his wife, who had been smoking for 15 years, quit a few months after joining the movement.

Kanunnikov said he meditates every day in the morning and in the evening for five to 10 minutes at home and also attends regular mediation gatherings in the Okhta hall.

"This makes me feel good," he said.

Sahaja Yoga also leads people to self-treatment. It teaches that by using simple methods humans can clean their energy centers and thus correct their organs and systems.

The science asserts that people who receive self-realization correct their blood pressure and metabolism without medicine and get rid of stress.

The local Sahaja Yoga movement also organizes festivals for regular people, where they perform concerts and speak about Indian culture and Sahaja Yoga.

Indian vice consul Sanjay Kumar Verma said the St. Petersburg consulate treats the movement positively, though it doesn't promote it, as Sahaja Yoga is a non-government movement.