Sahaja

Sahaja

"nature", "spontaneity", "ingenuousness", "naturalness"

Innate, primordial, higher nature.

The concept of sahaja is found in many sampradayas: among Nathas, Vaishnavas, Buddhists, Jains, and in a certain form among Indian Sufis. The methods of practicing sahaja in different schools are different, but at the level of living a full-fledged experience, they are interrelated.

It is believed that when Buddhism was ousted from India (to Nepal, Tibet, and Southeast Asian countries), some Buddhists, such as followers of Sahajayana, dissolved into the traditions that existed in India. This led to a synthesis of the teachings. Borrowed practices and, in part, the worldview of Tantric Buddhism were transformed into Hindu forms of sahaja.

Often, the concept of sahaja (staying in nature) is narrowly associated with Vaishnava sahaja and therefore is condemned: representatives of this cult used sex, narcotic substances, etc. in their practices, abusing spiritual principles for worldly purposes, and therefore naturalness began to be understood as following primitive, animal nature (and not higher). Whereas, for example,  in Vaishnavism the essence of true sahaja is spontaneous, immediate and natural faith in God.

In Nath tradition, the essence of sahaja is that the supreme is extremely simple and connected with nature.

इन्द्रियद्वारकṁ सर्वṁ सुखदुःखादिसङ्गमम् | इतीन्द्रियाणि सन्त्यज्य स्वस्थः स्वात्मनि वर्तते ||१३६|| 
indriyadvārakaṁ sarvaṁ sukhaduḥkhādisaṅgamam | itīndriyāṇi santyajya svasthaḥ svātmani vartate ||136||

All contacts with pleasure, suffering, etc. [occur] through the doors of perception (indriyas). One should give up [attachment] to these indriyas and remain in one's [natural] state (svastha), returning to one's essential nature. (136)

"Vijnana-bhairava Tantra"

The practice of sahaja among the Naths is mainly based on breathing, since breathing is the most natural thing for a living being. From nature and from God, man is endowed with the ability to breathe and constantly repeat the mantra "so-ham". This is a natural process, because the feeling of "I am Him" is natural for us. And the unnatural state is the one that occurs when we plunge into Maya and the duality in which we get entangled.

"According to non-dual tantras such as “Pratyabhijna-darshana” or “Nath darshana” set forth in “Siddha-siddhanta paddhati”, inside Shiva, as the omnipresent space of superconsciousness, is his Shakti and all their creation. But the individual consciousness, being immersed in different veils (avaranas) of Maya is artificially separated from this boundless space. Through the highest sadhana, this consciousness returns to its original source and merges with its nature – this is sahaja"

Guru Yogi Matsyendranath Maharaj