|
|
|
| Free E-magazine |
| Subscribe to our Free E-Magazine on Hath Yoga. |
| Learn More |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Home > The Subtle Body > Kundalini Shakti
| |
| | Kundalini Shakti
| |
| |
 Spirals are the natural curves of life and uniform growth. They are always growing and yet never cover the same ground. They are the only form of curve in which one part differs from another in size, not in shape. Spirals work both ways, coming from and going to their source. They define and illuminate what has already happened, as well as leading inevitably on to bigger things and new discoveries.
At the heart of hatha-yoga is the idea of Kundalini-Shakti, a coiled serpent in the form of a spiral, representing the reservoir of potential force or power which is, in principle, available to every one of us.
Kundalini means `she who is coiled` and Shakti means `power`. Therefore, Kundalini-Shakti stands for the `coiled` or `spiral power`, often also known as `Serpent power`. Like the compressed spring of a jack-in-the-box, she lies dormant yet potent with energy, ready to expand upwards as soon as the lid is released and the pathway is clear.
Kundalini is identical to the supreme feminine force Goddess (Devi), who is the power, and hence the `consort`, of Siva. Her nature incorporates three guna in one, namely :
· Emission, Production, or Emanation.
· Existence or Preservation.
· Absorption or Dissolution.
Hence she stands for the three gunas or trimurti rolled into one.
Synonyms of Kundalini listed in Hath Yoga Pradipika include: Kuta-lungi (crooked bodied), Bhujanga (she-serpent), Shakti (power), lsvari (owner, possessor, female Lord), and Kundali (coiled). In the same textual work it is stated that hatha is the means and Kundalini the key with which the yogi may unlock the `door to liberation` (Moksa-Dvara).
There is some controversy concerning the `seat` of Kundalini in the human subtle body. The Gheranda-Samhita states that "The power of the Self (Atma-Shakti) resides in muladhara. Similar references can be found in other relevant sources. The Hath Yoga Pradipika and Goraksa-Sataka, however, are clear in their placement of Kundali/Kundalini as `above the kanda, it being the region of the lower abdomen. It is instructive that one of the key techniques described in the Hath Yoga Pradipika involves applying physical pressure to the abdomen with the heels and sides of the feet, the heels pressing into the navel and the balls of the feet into the solar plexusand stimulating Kundalini by firmly contracting `the sun` (i.e. the solar plexus).
Kundalini is a force so powerful as to be considered the source of all manifestation. There is more than one specific locus in the bodily matrix that harbors a strong potential for stimulating or accessing that force, and one or other of such loci may be the object of attention in particular hatha techniques. The presence of a range of `power access points` could be one reason for disagreements in hatha texts concerning Kundalini`s initial location.
The aim of hatha-yoga is to first purify the nadis to facilitate the improved flow of prana, and then to induce the arousal and upward-movement of Kundalini. The activation of this otherwise latent but extremely powerful force is bound to create a profound transformation of the yogi. Not to mention his subtilisation and sublimation of his or her ordinary sense of identity.
Main stages in this transformative process are regarded as coinciding with the `piercing` or `opening` by Kundalini of the various chakras and her dramatic arrival at the pericarp of sahasrara-padma (in the region of the cerebrum) marks the yogi`s `divinisation`, i.e. the realisation of his identity as Brahman.
"When you feel currents of prana rising up to the Sahasrara, when you experience bliss, when you repeat 0m automatically, when there are no thoughts of the world in the mind... When in your meditation the eyes become fixed on trikuti, [between] the eye-brows, when the Sambhavi-mudra operates, know that Kundalini has become active... During meditation when you feel as if {here is no body, when your eye-lids become closed and do not open in spite of your exertion, when electric-like currents flow up and down the nerves, know that Kundalini has awakened."
Many accounts of experiences associated with the-Kundalini Phenomenon include sensations of intense heat, especially in the region of the spine.
It can be the perception of light inside her skull` and `all the way down her spine as well.` The occurrence of such tangible symptoms implies a causal continuum between subtle and gross aspects of the human organism, as does the fact that, in hatha-yoga, mechanisms of the Sthula-sharira (gross body) such as breathing and muscular contractions-are utilized for the stimulation of Kundalini. On the yogic view, the activities of the various layers` of one`s being are intimately woven together into one psychophysical matrix. Only at the point of physical death is the outermost layer, the Sthula-Sharira, cast off.
Some texts describe the internal perception of `a great light` in the region of ajna-cakra, as a `preliminary stage` in the arousal of Kundalini. During this stage, `The mind becomes calmer and the appetite reduced. The breath flows simultaneously through both nostrils for a number of days, indicating that the Ida and Pingala nadis are in equilibrium. Eventually comes the `explosive` animation of Kundalini, the experience of which is akin to `an electric shock from the base of the spinal column, travelling all the way up to the Sahasrara Padma.` musical sounds (nada) may be heard, and that suppressed feelings may be temporarily stirred up from the `subconscious mind`. The physical body will be paralysed for the duration of the initial awakening, and both breath and pulse may cease, giving the appearance of physical death; `but if one opens the eyelids, one will find that the eyes are glowing like diamonds with pranic energy`," and the corresponding `inner`, or supra-physical, experience will be one of blissful illumination. The practical suggestion related with this powerful experience is that:
"If [someone] in the [samadhi] state has not come back by the twenty-first day, one should gently try to bring the person back to physical consciousness. However, it is for them to decide whether to go or to come back. Beyond twenty one days it will not be possible to bring the person back to life."
The state of physiological suspension in samadhi need not signify the end of one`s psychological, and physical life, but should, on the contrary, furnish the highest possible enrichment of that life. The peak experience of Kundalini`s initial upsurge is held to open up a permanent pathway in the Sushumna, through which prana may now flow.
As Sat Chakra Nirupama puts it, when `The beautiful Kundalini has drunk the excellent red nectar issuing from Para-Siva, she returns from there where shines eternal and Transcendent Bliss in all its glory along the path of Kula [ brahma-nadi], and again enters the Muladhara.`
Repeated occurrences of Kundalini`s ascension will engender, perhaps over several lifetimes, a gradual transformation of the person`s mental and physical faculties. `Ultimately, even the physical cells become charged with divine incorruptibility` and the body radiates `a characteristic golden hue` (which is, he notes, too `subtle` to be captured on photographic film).
Since Kundalini is said to `throw open the mouth to Sushumna, so that prana is able to move freely through if, it is clear that a distinction is made in hatha theory between Kundalini and prana. While both terms denote a primal `force` or `energy`, they are not thought of as identical.
While prana is `the most basic unit of energy`, Kundalini provides the `static background`, which supports, or gives rise to, that energy. Kundalini, then, is not a `unit of energy`, but the source, or `mother`, of all energy, one of her many titles being Prana-devata (Goddess of prana), which suggests her priority over prana."
Kundalini may be regarded as both static and dynamic force. In her unmanifest` state as potential energy/matter she is passive. Whereas, in her various levels of manifestation, she appears as though active.
In both states, she stands for the power of Siva; and, as Siva is all mighty, so is Kundalini. It takes only a relatively tiny fraction of that power to maintain the process of cosmic evolvement, a fathomless reservoir remains latent, and it is into this reservoir the yogin is considered to tap when he or she brings about the elevation of Kundalini.
| |
| |
|
