What is Kundalini Yoga?

 Kundalini Awakening Is Like Treading Razor’s Edge

Kundalini yoga is ascent of consciousness from lower to higher chakras (energy centers), knocking and rousing the Divine Energy lying dormant in man, leading to the Knowledge of the Ultimate Truth, the summit of self-realization.

 

 

Kundalini: Feminine Energy

Shiva & Shakti Combined

According to the Hindu philosophy, Nature which is called Prakriti or Shakti creates the universe with the consent of the Supreme Lord, the Permanent, Param Purusha.

The Executive Energy constitutes the myriad forms visible as well as those invisible out of the Purusha. She mothers and guides everything that exists in the universe, from atoms to galaxies, from insects to man.

The universe is the visible manifestation of Prakriti evolving from unconsciousness to consciousness to greater consciousness to supreme consciousness, from Matter to Life, from Life to Mind, from Mind to Soul.

In Man, She has reached the stage from where She will take the next leap on Her way to meet the Soul, the Purusha, who is lying inert in the Universe as a witness of the Comic Play of Nature. The ultimate aim of evolving Cosmic Nature-the Mother- is to meet the Soul of Her creation-the Union of Shiva and Shakti.

Man is called potentially divine because he has the tremendous energy, now lying latent, coiled, undiscovered, unused. This energy can be awakened and when it is fully awakened it makes man Divine.

This latent supernormal faculty is known in the Yogic terminology as the Kundalini Shakti, the Serpent Power now lying coiled, in sleep, at rest, at the base of the human spine.

Yoga means the union of Shakti and Shiva, the feminine and the masculine principles: Energy and the Supreme Consciousness.

 

Kundalini Is No Illusion

Feels Like Electrical Impulses

The number of sages and yogis who have experienced Kundalini awakening within them across millennia is so great that such experiences can hardly be trashed as myths or illusions or hypnotic self-suggestions. They all affirm in emphatic unison that Kundalini is a real biological element that dwells inside the body.

Those who have experienced this awakening have described it as sudden electrical impulses coursing through the body, bringing visions and psychic experiences which the normal mind can never experience.

 

Yoga Stimulates the Awakening

Unused Brain Parts Become Super-Active

 Yoga alone can make the coiled energy uncoil and pervade the body and consciousness, consciousness moving upward to the Summit Consciousness where the two Divine Principles-Nature and Soul, Prakriti and Purusha, Shiva and Shakti, meet in a loving union.

Long and patient yogic practices following the yogic techniques like asanas, pranayamas and mediation are needed for this supreme consummation of human consciousness.

The mystics, well-versed in the art of Kundalini awakening, have recounted that when we direct our concentrated life energy to the centre where Kundalini dwells a tremendous energy uncoils.

Waking up, it moves through the spinal cord on to the brain, crossing the chakras, the wheels, the energy centers of the body. According to the yogis, who have experienced Kundalini awakening, this comes as an explosion in the brain and consequently the areas of the brain lying dormant suddenly spring up into life as though supercharged with an illimitable energy.

 

Supernormal Qualities

Breaking Free of Human Dimensions

Life is replete with men and women possessing supernormal qualities which are denied to the rest. We find writers and poets with supernormal powers of mind and intellect enriching life with their wonderful creativity; statesmen with supernormal strength leading nations to victories in difficult wars and to the peaks of development; scientists with supernormal power of invention and discovery broadening human knowledge and the spiritual giants with supernormal soul power leading men to God-realization.

How can we account for this riddle of differences, this unequal distribution of power among men? The mystics explain this in terms of the dormant Kundalini Shakti partly or fully awakened in such specially gifted human beings.

But why are we totally unaware of this serpent power dwelling within the frame of our body?  The answer is simple. The mind of human dimension cannot perceive the Energy of Divine Dimension. Yoga helps us go beyond the human dimensions and make it possible for Kundalini to awake. However, only a few can attain this through the grace of the Guru or the Divine.

 

Danger of Magnified Ego

Not Yogic Journey’s End

There is, however, a danger for the Kundalini-enlightened yogis and this comes from their ego magnified by their sudden possession of supernormal powers.

At a certain stage of this awakening, certain paranormal powers like clairvoyance, magical healing and hypnotism manifest. The mystics who have crossed this extremely glamorous stage of Kundalini awakening warn that even the highly advanced yogis face the danger of being caught in this grandeur of paranormal powers and subsequently they lose their way forward towards the Supreme Divine Consciousness.

Sage Patanjali warned that siddhis or powers gained as by-products of spiritual pursuits are dangerous traps if they are pursued as end in themselves.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who is believed to have awakened Kundalini in many of his close disciples, disdained and rejected siddhis, for he knew that they may bring spiritual ruin. They would view the siddhis as mere milestones that tell that while we have crossed many miles many more are left to traverse on way to the Supreme Consciousness of Bliss.

 

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