Sahaja ( pra, সহজ sa, सहज ) means spontaneous enlightenment in Indian and Tibetan Buddhist spirituality. Sahaja practices first arose in

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

during the 8th century among

yogis A yogi is a practitioner of Yoga, including a sannyasin or practitioner of meditation in Indian religions.A. K. Banerjea (2014), ''Philosophy of Gorakhnath with Goraksha-Vacana-Sangraha'', Motilal Banarsidass, , pp. xxiii, 297-299, 331 ...

called Sahajiya

siddhas ''Siddha'' (Sanskrit: '; "perfected one") is a term that is used widely in Indian religions and culture. It means "one who is accomplished." It refers to perfected masters who have achieved a high degree of physical as well as spiritual ...

Ananda Coomaraswamy Ananda Kentish Muthu Coomaraswamy ( ta, ஆனந்த குமாரசுவாமி, ''Ānanda Kentiś Muthū Kumāraswāmī''; si, ආනන්ද කුමාරස්වාමි ''Ānanda Kumārasvāmī''; 22 August 1877 − 9 Septem ...

describes its significance as "the last achievement of all thought", and "a recognition of the identity of spirit and matter, subject and object", continuing "There is then no sacred or profane, spiritual or sensual, but everything that lives is pure and void."

Etymology

The Sanskrit nd the Tibetan, which precisely follows itliterally means: 'born or produced together or at the same time as. Congenital, innate, hereditary, original, natural (...by birth, by nature, naturally...)'. Etymologically, means 'together with', and derives from the root , meaning 'to be born, produced, to occur, to happen'. The Tibetan is an exact etymological equivalent of the Sanskrit. means 'together with', and means 'to be born, to arise, to come about, to be produced'. The Tibetan can function as verbal phrase, noun, or adjective.

Origins and Buddhist Sahajayana

The siddha Saraha (8th century CE) was the founder of the Hindu movement, with crossover with some Vajrayana Buddhist elements, termed ''Sahajayana,'' which flourished in

and

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

. Sahajiya

mahasiddha Mahasiddha ( Sanskrit: ''mahāsiddha'' "great adept; ) is a term for someone who embodies and cultivates the "siddhi of perfection". A siddha is an individual who, through the practice of sādhanā, attains the realization of siddhis, psychic ...

s like Saraha, Kanha, Savari and Luipa were tantric Hindus and Buddhists who expounded their beliefs in songs and dohas in the

Apabhraṃśa Apabhraṃśa ( sa, अपभ्रंश, , Prakrit: , ta, அவப்பிரஞ்சனம், , ) is a term used by '' vaiyākaraṇāḥ'' (native grammarians) since Patañjali to refer to languages spoken in North India before the ri ...

languages Shashibhusan Das Gupta, ''Obscure religious cults'' (Calcutta: Mukhopadhyay, 1969), chapter 1Per Kvaerne, On the Concept of Sahaja in Indian Buddhist Tantric Literature, ''Temenos'', vol.11, 1975, pp88-135 and Bengali. Many of the songs in this tradition are preserved in the Charyapada. Sahajiyas such as Saraha believed that enlightenment could be achieved in this lifetime, by laypersons living in samsara. The sahajiyas practiced a form of ritual union which was supposed to bring the female and male elements together in balance. Saraha and his disciples were also master practitioners of

Mahamudra Mahāmudrā ( Sanskrit: महामुद्रा, , contraction of ) literally means "great seal" or "great imprint" and refers to the fact that "all phenomena inevitably are stamped by the fact of wisdom and emptiness inseparable". Mahāmud ...

meditation, and Saraha composed a famous Mahamudra meditation text along with his 'Three Cycles of Doha', a series of yogic songs. Sahajiyas also criticized the Hindu caste system. Sahajayana Buddhism became very popular in the

Pala Empire The Pāla Empire (r. 750-1161 CE) was an imperial power during the post-classical period in the Indian subcontinent, which originated in the region of Bengal. It is named after its ruling dynasty, whose rulers bore names ending with the suffi ...

, especially among commoners. One of the classic texts associated with the Sahajiya Buddhists is the

Hevajra Hevajra (Tibetan: kye'i rdo rje / kye rdo rje; Chinese: 喜金剛 Xǐ jīngāng / 呼金剛 Hū jīngāng;) is one of the main yidams (enlightened beings) in Tantric, or Vajrayana Buddhism. Hevajra's consort is Nairātmyā (Tibetan: bdag me ...

Tantra. The tantra describes four kinds of Joy (ecstasy): ''From Joy there is some bliss, from Perfect Joy yet more. From the Joy of Cessation comes a passionless state. The Joy of Sahaja is finality. The first comes by desire for contact, the second by desire for bliss, the third from the passing of passion, and by this means the fourth ahajais realized. Perfect Joy is samsara ystic union The Joy of Cessation is nirvana. Then there is a plain Joy between the two. Sahaja is free of them all. For there is neither desire nor absence of desire, nor a middle to be obtained.'' The siddha, Indrabhuti, wrote a commentary on Sahaja teachings called the ''.''

In the Nāth tradition

is one of the four keywords of the

Samarasa Samarasa (Sanskrit Devanagari: समरास; IAST: samarāsa; synonymous with IAST: ekarāsa; ; ) is literally "one-taste" "one-flavour" or "same-taste" and means equipoise in feelings, non-discriminating or the mind at rest. Dzogchen Vajranath ...

. meditation and worship was prevalent in Tantric traditions common to

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

and

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

in Bengal as early as the 8th–9th centuries. The British Nath teacher Mahendranath wrote: The concept of a spontaneous spirituality entered

with

Nath Nath, also called Natha, are a Shaiva sub-tradition within Hinduism in India and Nepal. A medieval movement, it combined ideas from Buddhism, Shaivism and Yoga traditions in India.Gorakshanath Gorakhnath (also known as Goraksanath, c. early 11th century) was a Hindu yogi, saint who was the influential founder of the Nath Hindu monastic movement in India He is considered one of the two notable disciples of Matsyendranath. His follower ...

and was often alluded to indirectly and symbolically in the twilight language () common to traditions as found in the '' Charyapada'' and works by

Matsyendranath Matsyendranātha, also known as Matsyendra, Macchindranāth, Mīnanātha and Minapa (early 10th century) was a saint and yogi in a number of Buddhist and Hindu traditions. He is traditionally considered the revivalist of hatha yoga as well ...

and Daripada. It influenced the

bhakti movement The Bhakti movement was a significant religious movement in medieval Hinduism that sought to bring religious reforms to all strata of society by adopting the method of devotion to achieve salvation. Originating in Tamilakam during 6th cent ...

through the Sant tradition, exemplified by the

Baul The Baul ( bn, বাউল) are a group of mystic minstrels of mixed elements of Sufism, Vaishnavism and Tantra from Bangladesh and the neighboring Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Barak Valley and Meghalaya. Bauls cons ...

s of

Namdev Shri Sant Namdev Maharaj (Pronunciation: aːmdeʋ, also transliterated as Nam Dayv, Namdeo, Namadeva, (traditionally, ) was a Marathi Bahujan saint from Narsi, Hingoli, Maharashtra, India within the Varkari tradition of Hinduism. He lived ...

Prabhakar Machwe, Namdev: Life & Philosophy, Punjabi University, 1968, pp37-41 Dnyaneshwar,

Meera Meera, better known as Mirabai and venerated as Sant Meerabai, was a 16th-century Hindu mystic poet and devotee of Krishna. She is a celebrated Bhakti saint, particularly in the North Indian Hindu tradition. Mirabai was born into a Rathore ...

Kabir Kabir Das (1398–1518) was a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint. His writings influenced Hinduism's Bhakti movement, and his verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Guru Granth Sahib, the Satguru Granth Sahib of Saint Garib Das ...

Kabir: In the bliss of Sahaj, ''Knowledge of Reality'', no.20
/ref> and

Guru Nanak Gurū Nānak (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539; Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ; pronunciation: , ), also referred to as ('father Nānak'), was the founder of Sikhism and is the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated w ...

, the founder of

Sikhism Sikhism (), also known as Sikhi ( pa, ਸਿੱਖੀ ', , from pa, ਸਿੱਖ, lit=disciple', 'seeker', or 'learner, translit=Sikh, label=none),''Sikhism'' (commonly known as ''Sikhī'') originated from the word ''Sikh'', which comes fro ...

.Niharranjan Ray, The Concept of Sahaj in Guru Nanak's Theology and its Antecedents', in ''Medieval Bhakti Movements in India'', edited by N.N.Bhattacharyya (New Delhi:

Munshiram Manoharlal Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd. (MRML) is a leading publishing house located in New Delhi, India. Established in 1952 by Manohar Lal Jain, it is one of the oldest publishing houses in India. About MRML publishes books on social sc ...

, 1969), pp17-35

Yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

in particular had a quickening influence on the various traditions. The culture of the body () through processes of Haṭha-yoga was of paramount importance in the Nāth sect and found in all schools. Whether conceived of as 'supreme bliss' (), as by the Buddhist Sahajiyās, or as 'supreme love' (as with the Vaiṣṇava Sahajiyās), strength of the body was deemed necessary to stand such a supreme realisation.

Vaishnava-Sahajiya

The sect became popular in 17th century Bengal. It sought religious experience through the

five senses A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the world through the detection of stimuli. (For example, in the human body, the brain which is part of the central nervous system rec ...

. The divine relationship between Krishna and Radha (guises of the divine masculine and divine feminine) had been celebrated by Chandidas (Bangla: ) (born 1408 CE), Jayadeva (circa 1200 CE) and

Vidyapati Vidyapati ( – 1460), also known by the sobriquet ''Maithil Kavi Kokil'' (the poet cuckoo of Maithili), was a Maithili and Sanskrit polymath-poet-saint, playwright, composer, biographer, philosopher, law-theorist, writer, courtier ...

(c 1352 - c 1448) whose works foreshadowed the ''

rasas Rasas ( ar, رساس, also spelled Rsas) is a village in southern Syria, administratively part of the al-Suwayda Governorate, located south of al-Suwayda. Nearby localities include 'Ira to the southwest, Sahwat Bilata to the east, al-Ruha to th ...

'' or "flavours" of love. The two aspects of absolute reality were explained as the eternal enjoyer and the enjoyed, Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā, as may be realised through a process of attribution (), in which the Rasa of a human couple is transmuted into the divine love between Kṛṣṇa and Rādhā, leading to the highest spiritual realisation, the state of union or . The element of love, the innovation of the school, is essentially based on the element of yoga in the form of physical and psychological discipline. is a synthesis and complex of traditions that, due to its tantric practices, was perceived with disdain by other religious communities and much of the time was forced to operate in secrecy. Its literature employed an encrypted and enigmatic style. Because of the necessity of privacy and secrecy, little is definitively known about their prevalence or practices.

The or the ''

siddhi In Indian religions, (Sanskrit: '; fulfillment, accomplishment) are material, paranormal, supernatural, or otherwise magical powers, abilities, and attainments that are the products of yogic advancement through sādhanās such as meditati ...

'' or 'natural accomplishment' or the 'accomplishment of the unconditioned natural state' was also a textual work, the revealed by Dombi Heruka (Skt. Ḍombi Heruka or Ḍombipa) one of the eighty-four

Mahasiddha Mahasiddha ( Sanskrit: ''mahāsiddha'' "great adept; ) is a term for someone who embodies and cultivates the "siddhi of perfection". A siddha is an individual who, through the practice of sādhanā, attains the realization of siddhis, psychic ...

s.Chattopadhyana, Debiprasad (ed.)(1970). ''Taranatha's History of Buddhism in India''. Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Simla. p.245-246 The following quotation identifies the relationship of the 'mental flux' (

mindstream Mindstream (''citta-santāna'') in Buddhist philosophy is the moment-to-moment continuum (Sanskrit: ''saṃtāna'') of sense impressions and mental phenomena, which is also described as continuing from one life to another. Definition ' (Sanskr ...

) to the . Moreover, it must be remembered that though Sundararajan and Mukerji (2003: p. 502) use a masculine pronominal the term is not gender-specific and that there were females, many as senior , amongst the communities:

Ramana Maharshi

Ramana Maharshi Ramana Maharshi (; 30 December 1879 – 14 April 1950) was an Indian Hindu sage and '' jivanmukta'' (liberated being). He was born Venkataraman Iyer, but is mostly known by the name Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. He was born in Tiruchuli, T ...

distinguished between and : is temporary,David Godman, I' and 'I-I' - A Reader's Query''
/ref>
/ref> whereas is a continuous state throughout daily activity. This state seems inherently more complex than , since it involves several aspects of life, namely external activity, internal quietude, and the relation between them. It also seems to be a more advanced state, since it comes after the mastering of ''samadhi''.

Notes

References

Sources

Printed sources

* Arora, R.K. ''The Sacred Scripture'' (New Delhi: Harman, 1988), chapter 6: Sahaja * Das Gupta, Shashibhusan. ''Obscure religious cults'' (Calcutta: Mukhopadhyay, 1969) * Davidson, Ronald M. "Reframing Sahaja: genre, representation, ritual and lineage", ''Journal of Indian Philosophy'', vol.30, 2002, pp45–83 * Dimock, Edward C. Jr. "The Place of the Hidden Moon - Erotic Mysticism in the Vaiṣṇava-sahajiyā Cult of Bengal, University of Chicago Press, 1966 *
Kvaerne, Per. "On the Concept of Sahaja in Indian Buddhist Tantric Literature", ''Temenos'', vol.11, 1975, pp88-135
* Mahendranath, Shri Gurudev
Ecstasy, Equipoise, and Eternity
Retrieved Oct. 20, 2004. * Mahendranath, Shri Gurudev
The Pathless Path to Immortality
Retrieved Oct. 20, 2004. * Neki, J.S. "Sahaja: an Indian ideal of mental health", ''Psychiatry'', vol.38, 1975, pp1–10 * Ray, Niharranjan. "The Concept of Sahaj in Guru Nanak's Theology and its Antecedents", in ''Medieval Bhakti Movements in India'', edited by N.N.Bhattacharyya (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1969), pp17–35

Web-sources

* Timothy Conway (2012)

{{Yoga Bengali philosophy Buddhism in Bangladesh Schools of Buddhism Buddhist philosophical concepts Hindu philosophical concepts Bhakti movement Nondualism Advaita Yoga