Re-Igniting the Flame with Ioana & Sahaja Yoga Meditation – by Journalist Victoria Kaye

Re-Igniting the Flame

by  Victoria Kaye (Editorial Board of One Thousand Trees e-Magazine in Brantford, Ontario)

1000 Trees June 2013

As we prepare for Ignite the Flame II, we naturally return to last year when a small idea came from a huge heart, but one that wasn’t beating alone. When Ioana Popa, Volunteer instructor and coordinator for Halton-Niagara classes and events for Sahaja Yoga Meditation known as Free Meditation (Free-Meditation.ca) learned that the Flame has been reignited, she was ecstatic. She has marked her calendar for July 6-7, 2013, at Paris Fairgrounds in Paris, Ontario, the new home of Ignite the Flame.

I asked what stood out for her last year. “I felt it was such an important event and really good for the community. The entire event had such a subtle impact that, for me, was a great idea that came from a higher level, and I’m glad it continues.”

It was after the Group Meditation on Earth Day, Sunday April 22nd 2012, when I met Ioana who was there with her friend Indu. In a crowded room, they gravitated to me and “plopped” me down in the middle of the dance floor to guide me into a personal meditation using the energy still rippling in the room.

Victoria receives a Chakra workshop from Indu and Ioana (Halton/Niagara sahaja yoga meditation group)

Even today, I find myself speechless in the retelling.

In the May 2012 issue of One Thousand Trees I share this experience. Ioana learned of Ignite the Flame from a general email I had dispatched to a few hundred people found via the internet. I am amazed at the power of today’s technology.

 “Interesting how you reference technology,” Ioana muses. For her, technology means something a little different in its distinction. “In a sense, we are using the ether element of this communication that happens without direct contact. Underneath this technology actually is this subtle element of ether that has to do with the Throat (Vishuddhi) Chakra. I always connect everything from the subtle point of view.” She explains the Vishuddhi Chakra is all about communication and connectivity with community and relationships. She finds relevance in the fact that it was via an email communiqué that we indirectly met and now, with her on speaker phone from an older blackberry, she is being recorded on an android.

 “Internet communication, people that reach out to strangers across the planet and share from the heart, is when technology can unite, making us feel the world is really small as we are all sharing. These experiences are what truly make us a global personality, a global human being.”

I am very amused and impressed with Ioana’s distinctions between technology and spiritually driven communications. At first, I think it is her Romanian heritage as English not being her first language as I learn she has travelled, lived and worked in Germany as well as Africa; But her experience comes from both ether styles of communications, as by day, Ioana is an Incident Manager /Technology project Coordinator with a Canadian bank; and by night and weekends, she is a volunteer and coordinator for classes and event in the Niagara/Halton areas for Sahaja Yoga meditation.

To make a connection, you don’t need to communicate, but you are communicating because you are using a different transmitter. What energy source makes this connection?

“It is the subtlest of the subtler of the subtle,” exudes an excited Ioana as though what is said is the summation and definition of the force. “When we are connected, there is the ultimate type of communication that goes beyond the message. For me, connectivity is togetherness in oneness, and that’s it!”

So energy is the ultimate communicator?

Ioana believes society is overusing the word energy. For her, energy is what we truly are, a common fluidity, the thread of life. It is an awareness that has a bigger purpose. “We are all bound together in it like a primordial type of creation. We all have to connect to that energy. Ultimately that is the one that does the real communicating. Take a real flower and a man-made plastic one…” begins Ioana’s energy lesson, as she explains that in nature, a real flower opens and it closes; it reaches for the sun and sways with the wind. It touches and moves with its surroundings as it is connected. A plastic flower doesn’t.

Is this magic? People will say it’s mumbo jumbo, coincidence.

 “From what we both felt, it was magic,” as Ioana references our impromptu encounter at last year’s Ignite the Flame. “For the person who says it is mumbo jumbo, then rationally tell me how you can think to explain how one can just take up meditation and relaxation and be there, in the moment; that people were totally there and connected. How can you explain that logically? If you talk about the facts, the place, it was crazy, we were all excited and tired, we did not know each other, we had nothing in common, logically it would have been an impossibility to reach those results. But in reality, what we shared demonstrates the opposite; it did happen and in that lays the definition of magic.”

But society will continue to believe in mumbo jumbo than the pure moment. Is this influenced by the media or is it modern civilization?

 “We have lost our roots. Modern civilization is so far from nature, and what makes life real. The mind, heart and attention must be integrated, not for just personal advancement but also connected for mankind’s global evolution. Human being is a family that has a common destiny. Nowadays everyone is focused on the extremely superficial. Money, fame and materialism, these are the perpetrators getting in the way of true communication.”

It’s a concrete jungle out there, far from nature, full of negative vibration and radiation. Everything we touch in materialism has an energy that is equal or greater than meditation. It’s a David and Goliath battle of energy as no matter how much meditation or clean eating and living we add to our toxic lives the concrete jungle is the Goliath.

“No, no… the problem is human beings think about quantity, not quality. The vibrational energy that is mitigated by this concrete jungle may seem happy moments, but they are still bad vibrations; that is all they are. They affect our chakras, the energy within us, but each of us has an amazing force within that can easily conquer the heavy negative vibrations of the concrete jungle. When Kundalini is rising, it sees and connects every single one of us. Even if there is not one piece of nature around us, it can connect within each of us,” and that is what happened at Ignite the Flame last year.

Though everyone was in a dark, closed off banquet room in a concrete building, they were connected and transmitting on the same frequency. I was an innocent bystander watching over and was amazed how tangible the energy generated was emitting, and I am not a devote follower or practice meditation.

What I have learned, meditation is more and more about awareness, many of them mindful, while some focus thinking to empty the mind. The solution for the modern time is actually obtaining a connection, and I think this is why at most shows such as Ignite the Flame, the Free Meditation booth is a popular attraction.

 “The popularity of our booth is very subjective,” Ioana is always amazed and grateful when there are continuously people in line waiting their turn. “Our Free Meditation booth is run completely by volunteers. What attracts more than anything is the energy it exudes. The volunteers love to give without feeling like they are giving anything. It is intended pure love, an oneness, and once you feel it, once you are in it, it pushes itself forward to be shared, and by default sharable as you cannot hold it for yourself. It’s a desire, without any purpose, without any ego related purpose, as we don’t expect anything. We are in the moment, and we love it, the magic moment when you feel the energy sprouting out of from another person as its tangible. You can feel that nervous energy when someone approaches the booth initially with doubt. Their nervousness and doubt is always present, and then, you see the magic as they are transformed in minutes. They open their eyes and you see a milder personality, you see the child in the seeker’s eyes. It truly is magic. It is not a skill that is learned in a course, it is something we carry within us.”

“It is quite common for this energy to be a healing one,” Ioana shares the experience of a recent seeker Sonya and found in detail on the Free Meditation website. It is very, very similar to what I felt when Ioana plopped me down at last year’s Ignite the Flame and now as she guides me through another meditation over speaker phone.

As I desperately try to understand, she instructs me not to. “Words have energy. Intelligent energy that finds its way to everyone and gives what you need when you need it. Kundalini knows when you need healing the most. It gives you relief on that physical level. The purpose is to show beyond all that is as you are transported to a very elevated state. People that are happy, cry tears of joy. Nowadays people don’t display their emotions; they are very guarded; genuine expressions are void in their lives as most have become very disconnected from within themselves.

I am looking forward to reconnecting with Ioana and Sahaja Yoga Meditation at Ignite the Flame II in July. To learn more, visit them at www.Free-Meditation.ca

Ioana’s Note: this interview was solicited by Sara who is the heart and engine behind the Ignite the Flame events. The article had been published in One Thousand Trees e-magazine (June, 2013 issue). Thank you Sara and Victoria!

Story behind: Sara contacted Victoria KayePeter and Ioana from Sahaja Yoga meditation, asking  for our participation and suggesting for our group to lead the global meditation (!!! what an honour !!!) as well to provide a guest speaker on Meditation. I was so glad to be told that the interview will be conducted by Victoria with whom I had shared so spontaneously a wonderful vibrational connection in 2012 at Ignite the Flame event in Bradford. What was interesting is that during the interview (over the phone) I had suggested to Victoria to try a quick meditation exercise (specific to sahaja yoga) that would have helped her to “feel again Kundalini energy” as she had doubted that it can be repeated. Specially that the interview had so much to do with the connection and technology, the intent was to experience that the spiritual vibrational connection is real and it accepts, transcends (even takes advantage of) the modern technology used in our day to day communicaton. And yes, she felt again! Following the interview, Victoria who lives now in Brampton accepted my invite to come and try a ‘classical’ Sahaja Yoga meditaton class, offered for free in her own town. We met there and next Thursday at Bramalea Public Library and Victoria had an amazing experience during the chakra workshop. I hope that she will drop a comment and share ‘her sahaj moment’ because  it was special and she owns it.. plus, let’s not forget she is the writer! 🙂

(click!) Ioana’s Interview on Sahaja Yoga Meditation for DESI NEWS Canada:`The Power of One`(Nov 2011 issue)

(click!) WATCH “Ignite the FlameGlobal Meditation”: Sahaja Yogis in 1000 Trees (Magazine, May issue, 2012)

This Post Has 5 Comments

  1. Jon

    That is a fantastic article! A special thank you to Victoria and One Thousand Trees for allowing us to post it on the Halton website! Not just a link, but the actual article!

    Yes, Ignite the Flame 2012 was an amazing event! So much positive ebergy was flowing all weekend! I am so glad we are invited back in 2013, and to lead the group meditation is a great honor!

    Thank you for sharing this Ioana. We’ll see everyone at Ignite the Flame!

  2. Chandra Sekhar

    What a beautiful way of explaining Sahaja Yoga, Ioana!!
    I read it more than once to digest the deep message.
    So beautiful. Thank you.
    -Chandra

  3. paula

    Thanks to Victoria for her honesty about her experience. I am sure there are many seekers that can relate to her inquisitive perspective. Very interesting article that successfully explains the spark which is the unique discovery of Sahaja Yoga. Victoria, you so generously shared your interview, links and article from your own website that I just want to thank you. Participating in Ignite the Flame, I feel that you really are someone with a huge open heart that comprehends the sincerity of this pure type of meditation and the desire to spread this reality via this wonderful festival. I have marked it on my calendar and I am telling everyone! The article is full of palpable vibrations…so glad you felt it too. Hope that more and more can experience the joy that comes from igniting the spirit, the flame inside. It is the key to happiness, peace, love and satisfaction. See you there!

  4. Holly

    Thank you so much Victoria for such an amazing and beautiful article to share with all!
    What a great way to communicate such blessings!

  5. Elsie Kuly

    A wonderful article by Victoria Kaye, journalist from One Thousand Trees interviewing our dear Ioana. Victoria had a direct experience of what Sahaja Yoga is She received a chakra workshop from Indu and Ioana. So it’s not just writing theoretically but from personal experience. Makes all the difference

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