Kundalini
"Kundalinî: 'She who is coiled; serpent power.' The
primordial cosmic energy in every individual which eventually, through the
practice of yoga, rises up the sushumnâ nâdî. As it rises, the kunalinî awakens
each successive chakra. Nirvikalpa samâdhi, enlightenment, comes as it pierces
through the door of Brahman at the core of the sahasrâra and enters!”
Hinduism Today
"The Kundalini is your own mother.
Your individual mother. And She has tape-recorded all your past and your
aspirations, everything. And She rises because She wants to give you your second
birth, but She is your individual mother. You don’t share Her with anybody else.
Yours is a different, somebody else’s is different because the tape-recording is
different. We say She is the reflection of the Adi Shakti who is called as Holy
Ghost in the Bible. But She rises without any difficulty. Hardly any time it
takes." — Shri Mataji 
Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man born be born again, he cannot
see the Kingdom of God... Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, except a man born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
Kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of
Spirit is spirit." John 3:5-7
"It is important to understand about your own Kundalini,
as Self-realisation is Self-knowledge. And the one who gives Self-knowledge is
your own Kundalini because when she rises, she points out what are the problems
on your Chakras. Now we say that it is pure desire. It is your chaste desire. It
has no lust or greed in it. That power is your Mother and She Is settled down in
the triangular bone. She knows everything about you just as a tape recorder. She
is absolute knowledge. Because She is so pure that whatever chakra She touches,
She knows what is wrong with that chakra before hand; so She is quite prepared
and She adjusts herself fully so that you do not get a problem by the awakening.
If any chakra is constricted, She waits and goes on slowly opening that
chakra.
The Kundalini is the primordial power and is reflected in you. In
a human being, it is like many strands of energy, like rope. This energy is all
twisted together to form that Kundalini. In a human being the strands are 3 x 7
= 21 Nadis raised to the power of 108. When your kundalini rises, one or two
strands out of this come up and pierce the fontanelle bone. It has to pass
through the innermost nadi known as Brahma Nadi. It is a spiral movement
throughout. The kundalini is spiral and nadis are also like a spiral. The
outermost nadi is the right-side nadi, Pingala Nadi. The second innermost is Ida
Nadi. She starts sending these threads through Brahma Nadi; by that they relax
the centre. By relaxing of centre, the sympathetic nervous system also starts
relaxing, your pupils start dilating and when it has pierced the Agnya, then the
eyes will be completely dilated and shining. Then She enters into
Sahasrara.
It is absolutely the pure light of knowledge of love,
compassion and attention. All these things are in that energy. We know of many
energies like electrical, light energy etc. These energies cannot think. They
cannot adjust and work on their own. They have to be handled by us. But this
energy itself is the living energy and knows how to handle itself. It thinks. If
you see a seed being sprouted you will find at the tip of the seed there is a
small little cell which knows how to go around the soft places, how to encircle
the stones, and how to find its way towards the source. That cell has got a
little Kundalini in it. But within you a tremendous force of Kundalini exists.
When a realised soul says that he should have more compassion, as my compassion
is not alright; my concern about others, my generosity is not alright, I have
exploited other's love. Then this energy starts moving, giving you that greater
dimension of love and compassion. If you do not want to grow in your awareness
then She does not supply the energy which is stored in you.
The Kundalini
is there to nourish you, look after you, and make you grow by giving you a
higher, wider and deeper personality. All her power is nothing but love. She
gives the power to forgive. Even when you think, the energy for thinking comes
from Kundalini because you are asking her help.
The power of Kundalini is
absolute purity, auspiciousness, holiness, chastity, self-respect, pure love,
detachment, concern, enlightened attention to give you Joy. As a mother will try
whatever is possible to give joy to her child, in the same way, this Kundalini
has only one power and that is how to give Joy to her own Children. When we talk
in the light of Kundalini, we have to understand that this light spreads in your
life, outside your life and, expresses itself in a very beautiful
manner.
When you worship Adi Kundalini, the reflection in you, which is
your Kundalini, is very happy. Also the deities feel happy.
The power of
Kundalini which is your own Mother has to rise and manifest itself, because of
your Pure Desire. In your introspection, pujas, and in your Meditation, you
should see for yourself why are you in meditation. It is for pure desire of
compassion and love to be awakened within us. The growth has started and you
will find that this shell which is human conditioning and ego will just break
open. It is in the triangular bone, which comes up, manifests and can save the
whole world. Just see the magnificence, the expansion, the greatness of this
Kundalini which was within you and which came up in its full strength and has
shown tremendous things.
The joy we feel during music recitals is because
Kundalini is dancing. She gets happy because you ask for nothing but enjoyment
of collectivity.
You are yourself fully connected when you are absolutely
detached and your Kundalini is dancing. You are alone and never alone. This
oneness with the whole gives you all the security and joy you want. That's why
the Kundalini awakening means collectivity. Unless and until you want pure
collectivity in your being Kundalini won't rise.
When you worship Adi
Kundalini, you are trying to cleanse your Kundalini, as well and please the
deities. This is an object. It cannot be changed. But the reflector can change.
The movement of Kundalini depends on temperament of person. Kundalini can give
you honesty, and faith in honesty by actualising the experience. Supposing you
want to go to a garden and you are suddenly there. Then you will know that your
desire is pure and it has worked out. All such miracles happen. The pure desire
works out because it is powerful.
When it works, the whole thing works
out and you develop faith. That faith is within you. Nobody can challenge you if
you have faith. It will be done. Your pure desire is now being fulfilled, you
are now connected, and you are now Divine. You are realised souls. You are
different from others. For you, all this subtle knowledge is being absorbed,
because your Kundalini is absorbing it. Whatever is absorbed is absorbed back by
me. But that becomes like a barometer. You immediately know without thinking,
asking, you know about anyone because Kundalini is the reflector. The better a
reflector, you become, the more the Kundalini shows. Though Kundalini is an
individual Mother, in her functions and methods She is just the same. You cannot
cheat the Kundalini; She knows you out and out. We must meditate to get into
thoughtless awareness by which we allow the Kundalini to grow."
The
Paraclete Shri Mataji
Philadelphia, USA — Oct 15,
1993Kundalini: The dormant, divine Evolutionary Force that
enlightens and bestows immortality when activated
"What is Kundalini
Really? More commonly known in western cultures as Holy Spirit, Kundalini is the
ancient Sanskrit name for the primal life force that animates all living
entities—the evolutionary force behind all living matter.... Shaktipat is a
Sanskrit word for the process of activating the higher Kundalini-Shakti energy,
initiating the process of spiritual growth and enlightenment and advancing
personal evolution dramatically. This has also been called the "baptism by fire"
and "second birth"—a truly sacred mystical experience.” Dr. Larry Jensen PhD,
DD, MBA.
According to Indian tradition, man has seven chakras
(centres of energy). The Kundalini force is said to be sleeping, coiled like a
serpent, in the lowest chakra, called the root chakra. When this force is
awaken, it begins to rise up through the spine. The awakening occurs through
yoga, meditation, breathing exercises etc., and was called "the shorter way to
God".
The most ancient Eastern spiritual texts, the Vedas, of India, tell
us that the process of spiritual awakening by which one attains truth -awareness
is called 'Self-Realization'. The Self Realized person lives in direct
experience of reality—this is called "Jnana" ( a traditional sanskrit word
meaning 'knowledge' or 'Gnosis'). Such a person is called a "Jnani" ('knower '
or 'gnostic' ) or "dwijaha" ('twice born'; first from a human mother to the
earthly plane then secondly as a child of the Goddess, or Divine Mother, who
gives the seeker their second, spiritual birth, Self-Realisation, into the plane
of mystic awareness- gnosis! ).
Kundalini means ‘coiled energy’ and it refers to a power which lies in
three-and-a-half coils in the sacrum bone called the Mooladhara which is
distinct from, and lies above, the Mooladhara Chakra. (It is interesting to note
that sacrum if Greek for sacred.) A pulsation is sometimes seen at this level
during Kundalini Awakening. Like the Sushumna, the Kundalini is normally in a
potential state. When it is awakened it ascends through the Sushumna, across the
void to the top of the Sushumna. When the Kundalini emerges at this point, Yoga
is said to have taken place. Yoga is impossible without Kundalini Awakening.
This happening of Kundalini awakening and ultimate union with a higher
consciousness are described by a Sanskrit word ‘Sahaja’. This means literally
‘born with,’ spontaneous or effortless. The implication is that the entire
mechanism is inborn — part of human anatomy — and is activated in a spontaneous
and natural way without undue or extreme efforts. One analogy often used is the
germinating of a seed. This happens automatically when the seed is placed in the
Mother Earth.
When the Kundalini reaches the Agnya Chakra, one becomes silent and peaceful.
The person sits with his eyes closed, so this is not a state of hypnosis,
brainwashing or manipulation — just silence. The person is fully aware of
himself and of his surroundings and is he wishes to, he can think. However, the
person is very relaxed and his attention is not constantly being distracted by
the normal flow of mundane thoughts. This state is not achieved by any effort of
will or by any mental exercises on the part of the patient. It occurs
spontaneously when a Sahaja Yogi, that is to say someone who has the state of
Yoga and the expertise of the mechanism, awakens the Kundalini. But this is also
an illusion as it the Divine Presence within that gives Self-Realization.
If one of the Chakras is damaged or defective, the Kundalini may be
obstructed at that level. In such cases, it is often possible to see the
pulsation of the Kundalini at that level with the naked eye, and to hear it with
a stethoscope. This pulsation can also be heard at the fontanel and Adi
Shankaracaraya called this 'spandakarika.'
As the Kundalini rises through the Agnya Chakra, it cools down the system,
especially the cerebo-spinal fluid. This results in the balloons of the left and
right Agnya becoming progressively deflated. Once this happens the Kundalini is
able to reach the top of the Sushumna; the Sahasrara Chakra. At this point we
can say that Yoga has taken place. The person feels the coolness, like a breeze
of cool vibrations flowing in the fingers and palms of both hands. The
sensations on the hands can, with very little practice, be used to ascertain the
state of the Chakras. The nadis and the Chakras themselves begin to manifest in
the conscious awareness, and what has so far been a hypothesis becomes part of
one’s everyday sensory experience. Our fingertips, the base and center of the
palm become extremely sensitive as the sympathetic nerve endings representing
the different Chakras become enlightened. (According to the Prashna Upanishad,
verse 3:6, there are precisely 727,210,201 nerves.) We can feel on our fingers
our own selves and other people by a proper method of decoding, which can be
taught to anyone who reaches this stage, in a month. Thus, the diagnosis takes
place at a deeper level of our being through our sensitivity to these seven
centres.
If one learns how to nourish the Chakras through the knowledge of Sahaja
Yoga, one can cure the exhausted Chakras. Thus the patient is cured at the root
of the disease. It is a scientific and logical method that exists naturally
within ourselves, which gives us a balance, redeems us of our mental and
physical troubles, comforts and counsels us.
PRAYER TO MOTHER
KUNDALINIWake up Mother Kundalini.
Thou whose nature is Bliss
Eternal—The Bliss of Brahman.
Thou dwelling like a serpent asleep at the
lotus of Muladhara,
Sore, affected and distressed am I in body and mind,
Do thou bless me and leave thy place at the basic lotus.
Consort of Siva
the Self-caused Lord of Universe,
Do thou take thy upward course through the
central canal.
Leaving behind Svadhishthana, Manipuraka, Anahata, Vishuddha,
and Ajna.
Be thou united with Siva, thy Lord the God.
At Sahasrara—the
thousand-petalled-lotus in the brain.
Sport there freely, O Mother, Giver of
Bliss Supreme.
Mother, who is Existence, Knowledge, Bliss Absolute.
Wake
up, Mother Kundalini! Wake up.
KUNDALINI The word
Kundalini is a familiar one to all students of Yoga, as it is well known as the
power, in the form of a coiled serpent, residing in Muladhara Chakra, the first
of the seven Chakras, the other six being Svadhishthana, Manipuraka, Anahata,
Visuddha, Ajna and Sahasrara, in order.
All Sadhanas in the form of
Japa, meditation, Kirtan and prayer as well as all development of virtues, and
observance of austerities like truth, non-violence and continence are at best
calculated only to awaken this serpent-power and make it to pass through all the
succeeding Chakras beginning from Svadhishthana to Sahasrara, the latter
otherwise called as the thousand-petalled lotus, the seat of Sadasiva or the
Parabrahman or the Absolute separated from whom the Kundalini or the Shakti lies
at the Muladhara, and to unite with whom the Kundalini passes through all the
Chakras, as explained above, conferring liberation on the aspirant who
assiduously practises Yoga or the technique of uniting her with her Lord and
gets success also in his effort.
In worldly-minded people, given to
enjoyment of sensual and sexual pleasures, this Kundalini power is sleeping
because of the absence of any stimulus in the form of spiritual practices, as
the power generated through such practices alone awakens that serpent-power, and
not any other power derived through the possession of worldly riches and
affluence. When the aspirant seriously practises all the disciplines as enjoined
in the Shastras, and as instructed by the preceptor, in whom the Kundalini would
have already been awakened and reached its abode or Sadasiva, acquiring which
blessed achievement alone a person becomes entitled to act as a Guru or
spiritual preceptor, guiding and helping others also to achieve the same end,
the veils or layers enmeshing Kundalini begin to be cleared and finally are torn
asunder and the serpent-power is pushed or driven, as it were upwards.
Supersensual visions appear before the mental eye of the aspirant, new
worlds with indescribable wonders and charms unfold themselves before the Yogi,
planes after planes reveal their existence and grandeur to the practitioner and
the Yogi gets divine knowledge, power and bliss, in increasing degrees, when
Kundalini passes through Chakra after Chakra, making them to bloom in all their
glory which before the touch of Kundalini, do not give out their powers,
emanating their divine light and fragrance and reveal the divine secrets and
phenomena, which lie concealed from the eyes of worldly- minded people who would
refuse to believe of their existence even.
When the Kundalini ascends
one Chakra or Yogic centre, the Yogi also ascends one step or rung upward in the
Yogic ladder; one more page, the next page, he reads in the divine book; the
more the Kundalini travels upwards, the Yogi also advances towards the goal or
spiritual perfection in relation to it. When the Kundalini reaches the sixth
centre or the Ajna Chakra, the Yogi gets the vision of Personal God or Saguna
Brahman, and when the serpent-power reaches the last, the top centre, or
Sahasrara Chakra, or the Thousand-petalled lotus, the Yogi loses his
individuality in the ocean of Sat-Chit-Ananda or the Existence-Knowledge-Bliss
Absolute and becomes one with the Lord or Supreme Soul. He is no longer an
ordinary man, not even a simple Yogi, but a fully illumined sage, having
conquered the eternal and unlimited divine kingdom, a hero having won the battle
against illusion, a Mukta or liberated one having crossed the ocean of ignorance
or the transmigratory existence, and a superman having the authority and
capacity to save the other struggling souls of the relative world. Scriptures
hail him most, in the maximum possible glorifying way, and his achievement.
Celestial beings envy him, not excluding the Trinity even, viz., Brahma, Vishnu
and Siva.
Kundalini And Tantrik SadhanaKundalini Yoga
actually belongs to Tantrik Sadhana, which gives a detailed description about
this serpent-power and the Chakras, as mentioned above. Mother Divine, the
active aspect of the Existence- Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, resides in the body of
men and women in the form of Kundalini, and the entire Tantrik Sadhana aims at
awakening Her, and making Her to unite with the Lord, Sadasiva, in the
Sahasrara, as described in the beginning in detail. Methods adopted to achieve
this end in Tantrik Sadhana are Japa of the name of the Mother, prayer and
various rituals.
Kundalini And VedantaBut when we come to
Vedanta, there is no question about Kundalini or any type of mystical and
mechanical methods. It is all enquiry and philosophical speculation. According
to Vedanta the only thing to be destroyed is ignorance about one's real nature,
and this ignorance cannot be destroyed either by study, or by Pranayama, or by
work, or by any amount of physical twisting and torturing, but only by knowing
one's real nature, which is Sat-Chit-Ananda or Existence-Knowledge- Bliss. Man
is divine, free and one with the Supreme Spirit always, which he forgets and
identifies himself with matter, which itself is an illusory appearance and a
superimposition on the spirit. Liberation is freedom from ignorance and the
aspirant is advised to constantly dissociate himself from all limitations and
identify himself with the all-pervading, non-dual, blissful, peaceful,
homogeneous spirit or Brahman. When meditation becomes intensified, in the ocean
of Existence or rather the individuality is blotted or blown out completely.
Just as a drop of water let on a frying pan is immediately sucked and vanishes
from cognition, the individual consciousness is sucked in by the Universal
Consciousness and is absorbed in it. According to Vedanta there cannot be real
liberation in a state of multiplicity, and the state of complete Oneness is the
goal to be aspired for, towards which alone the entire creation is slowly moving
on.
The Mysterious KundaliniManastvam Vyoma tvam
Marudasi Marutsarathirasi,
Tvamapastvam Bhumistvayi parinatayam nahi
param,
Tvameva Svatmanam parinamayitum visvavapusha
Chidanandakaram
haramahishi-bhavena bibhrushe.
"O Devi! Thou art the mind, the sky,
the air, the fire, the water, and the earth. Nothing is outside Thee on Thy
transformation. Thou hast become Siva's consecrated queen to alter Thy own
blissful conscious Form in the shape of the world".
Kundalini, the
serpent power or mystic fire, is the primordial energy or Sakti that lies
dormant or sleeping in the Muladhara Chakra, the centre of the body. It is
called the serpentine or annular power on account of serpentine form. It is an
electric fiery occult power, the great pristine force which underlies all
organic and inorganic matter.
Kundalini is the cosmic power in individual
bodies. It is not a material force like electricity, magnetism, centripetal or
centrifugal force. It is a spiritual potential Sakti or cosmic power. In reality
it has no form. The Sthula Buddhi and mind have to follow a particular form in
the beginning stage. From this gross form, one can easily, understand the subtle
formless Kundalini. Prana, Ahamkara, Buddhi, Indriyas, mind, five gross
elements, nerves are all the products of Kundalini.
It is the coiled-up,
sleeping Divine Sakti that lies dormant in all beings. You have seen in the
Muladhara Chakra that there is Svayambhu Linga. The head of the Linga is the
space where Sushumna Nadi is attached to the Kanda. This mysterious Kundalini
lies face downwards at the mouth of Sushumna Nadi on the head of Svayambhu
Linga. It has three and a half coils like a serpent. When it is awakened, it
makes a hissing sound like that of a serpent beaten with a stick, and proceeds
to the other Chakra through the Brahma Nadi, which is also called Chitra Nadi
within Sushumna. Hence Kundalini is also called Bhujangini, serpent power. The
three coils represent the three Gunas of Prakriti: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, and
the half represents the Vikritis, the modification of Prakriti.
Kundalini is the Goddess of speech and is praised by all. She Herself,
when awakened by the Yogin, achieves for him the illumination. It is She who
gives Mukti and Jnana for She is Herself that. She is also called Sarasvati, as
She is the form of Sabda Brahman. She is the source of all Knowledge and Bliss.
She is pure consciousness itself. She is Brahman. She is Prana Sakti, the
Supreme Force, the Mother of Prana, Agni, Bindu, and Nada. It is by this Sakti
that the world exists. Creation, preservation and dissolution are in Her. Only
by her Sakti the world is kept up. It is through Her Sakti on subtle Prana, Nada
is produced. While you utter a continuous sound or chant Dirgha Pranava ! (OM),
you will distinctly feel that the real vibration starts from the Muladhara
Chakra. Through the vibration of this Nada, all the parts of the body function.
She maintains the individual soul through the subtle Prana. In every kind of
Sadhana the Goddess Kundalini is the object of worship in some form or the
other.[1]
Description of KundaliniOn the morning of November 18, 1996,
at about 7:35 a.m. the father was asking Kash about his unique dream of Shri
Mataji and putting the information into the computer. Kash's younger
six-year-old son Arwinder, who was meditating nearby, suddenly opened his eyes
and told his father that something yellowish had moved like a snake from his
Mooladhara Chakra right up to the top of his head. He explained with hand
gestures how it had snaked its way up, and was sure that it was in the form of a
snake. Arwinder added that it was also very powerful as a flash of white
lightning came out of his eyes when it reached the Sahasrara! He also added that
he also saw different colors — red, yellow, green, blue — like "rainbow colors,"
one after another. (Probably he saw the different colors of the chakras.)
When Arwinder first told that he saw "something yellowish moving like a
snake" he was questioned a few times to confirm the color as the father had not
read or heard from any source the actual color of the kundalini. The quote below
is from the book Kundalini Tantra, which was borrowed from a graduate of the
Bihar School of Yoga (Yogi Alok Kumar Gupta) on January 1, 1997 i.e., after the
above incident. Subsequently more information was obtained that confirmed
Arwinder's description of the Kundalini.
"In the traditional descriptions of kundalini awakening, it is said the
kundalini resides in Mooladhara in the form of a coiled snake and when the snake
awakens it uncoils and shoots up through Sushumna (the psychic passage in the
center of the spinal cord), opening the other chakras as it goes. (See Sir John
Woodroffe's The Serpent Power.) Brahmachari Swami Vyasdev, in his book Science
of the Soul, describes the awakening of kundalini in the following way:
"Sadhakas have seen the Sushumna in the form of a luminous rod or pillar, a
golden yellow snake, or sometimes as a shining black snake about ten inches long
with blood red eyes like smoldering charcoal, the front part of the tongue
vibrating and shining like lightning, ascending the spinal column."
Swami
S. Saraswati,
Kundalini Tantra, Bihar School of Yoga, 1984, p. 10