Kundalini energy, kundalini kriyas and shaktipat

Kundalini is lovebliss. Without kundalini, there will be no lovebliss in your life. It is that simple. There may be much love and bliss in a common sense, but the divine love-bliss will never be yours until the kundalini energy reaches the brain.

In every human being there is a divine energy called the the kundalini energy or kundalini for short. It lies coiled up in the root chakra just above the perineum. The kundalini energy comes in three states: the common dormant state, the aroused state and the rare awakened state. When the energy is dormant, one’s spiritual understanding is restricted, and everything is perceived and interpreted according to a mundane and selfish perspective. When the kundalini energy is aroused like through kundalini yoga, it gives a sudden temporary state of spiritual insight and spiritual energy, but it is not stable. Only the awakened kundalini energy gives stable transformations of consciousness.

Kundalini is the energy (Shakti) of the Self in a restricted form. As the awakened kundalini unfolds, restrictions fall off and spiritual insight and freedom arises.

Self-realization and the kundalini energy

In terms of kundalini, ignorance of the Self is characterized by the energy being stuck in the lowest chakra, slightly above the perineum. However, you can apparently reach Selfrealization without awakening kundalini; this state is nothingness-being, or Pure Being, and it has no love-bliss, it is usually described as being void, or nothing. It is not quicker to reach Self-realization without Shakti, as one might asume, on the contrary it is a faster path to surrender to both Pure Being as well as Shakti and the enlightenment one reaches will be of a different kind than if one ignores Shakti.

Kundalini awakening

The kundalini energy needs to rise inside the spine, and this is its natural course. As it progresses upwards various experiences and states will emerge. Usually kundalini rises in a fraction of its total amount, like only a few percent at a time, but sometimes the entire energy leaves the lowest chakra and enters the spine. When this happens it feels exactly like a snake entering the spinal column through the gap between the lowest back vertebrae and the sacral bone. It enters not from the sacral bone, but from the front. Hence dormant kundalini is not located inside the spine or sacral bone, but rather just above the perineum. This “snake” is about half as thick as your little finger and about 12 cm’s long. When it happens you will experience a state of bliss so intense nothing compares to it; it is like having sex with God.

During a kundalini awakening the energy may partially or fully rise from the lowest chakra and become very active in the body, but if it does not reach the heart chakra, there will not be much spiritual benefit in this. It may even be a scary experience if you don’t understand and respect what is going on. There is in reality nothing to be scared about since the kundalini energy will by itself fall down and rest after a while if one just leaves it alone.

When the energy reaches the heart chakra you will experience divine love, but it is not yet supreme love-bliss. In fact true love-bliss will only come when the kundalini energy enters the brain and Shakti merges with Pure Being. If the kundalini energy rises fully or partially to the throat chakra, or above, you will begin to experience blissful samadhi.

Trance states vs. samadhi

If kundalini rises and gets absorbed in clearing some block, trance states may arise, but they are not to be confused with samadhi. In samadhi there is oneness with Pure Being, with or without love-bliss. In trance there is unconsciousness or numbness. Love-bliss is Pure Being, there is no distinction between the two at all. In the beginning unconscious samadhi (inferior nirvikalpa samadhi) may occur during meditation, and you will recognize it by the bliss, you are full of when you open your eyes, and by not knowing how much time has passed; also your scull will be vibrating with blissful energy.

Kundalini and Pure Being

Some reject kundalini and love-bliss with respect to Pure Being and Self-realization, because they think the kundalini energy is a kind of relative force and that love-bliss is a kind of emotion. But kundalini is Pure Shakti and Shakti is One with Pure Being. Pure Being and Shakti are not two sides of a coin, they are one and the same. One may reach Self-realization and only know Pure Being without the Shakti. But such a realization will sooner or later change to integrate Shakti also and as that happens, one will merge with love-bliss. Shakti is love-bliss. It is not that love-bliss is a sign or symptoim of Shakti, Shakti and love-bliss are One. So the full enlightenment, not just realizing the Self as Pure Being, is a Oneness of Pure Being, Shakti and love-bliss. So while Self-realization is the common factor, there are kinds of enlightenment: The basic kind is Pure-Being-Nothingness without Shakti and love-bliss, the more advanced kind is Pure Being-Shakti-lovebliss. The first kind has no direct effect on other people, since it is all within the enlightened one, but the second kind comes with the gift of being able to pull others into Self-realization and awaken their kundalini, so they too will reach the highest soon. This gift is known as shaktipat.

How to work with kundalini

Sit in a comfortable upright posture. Follow your breath for a while. Then on the in breath imagine pulling energy up the entire spine to the crown of the head. You can remember the word “Shakti” or “Soo” as you do this. On the out breath imagine energy spreading in all directions from the brain. As you do this you can remember the word “Om” or “Hamm”. Either “shakti-om” or “soo-hamm”. That’s all there is to it, really. This will clear the passage for kundalini so that when it arises, there will be little resistance. The best way to activate kundalini is through shaktipat initiation.

Shaktipat, kundalini yoga and kundalini awakening

Shaktipat is transmission of shakti. (www.dyc.org). When you receive it directly from the Blue Being it is called parashaktipat or mahashaktipat and it is very rare. “Maha” means “great”. The kundalini yoga of shaktipat is called kundalini mahayoga.

During shaktipat two things happen. 1) The yogi transfers some of his energy to the recipient and the combined energy of the aspirant and the yogi may be enough to awaken kundalini. 2) The aspirants kundalini resonates with the yogi’s and begins to vibrate at the higher frequency (so to speak) of the yogi’s shakti.

Talking about the kundalini energy as asleep or awake is of course a metaphor, but it is very apt. When kundalini awakens it begins to behave in a radically different way from when it was asleep. Kundalini begins to remove your fixations in lower states of consciousness and this is like a process of waking up, hence we say kundalini is awake, but actually it is you that is awakening.

Shaktipat can be given in many ways. It is usually given in a combination, but will, thought, sight, touch or voice can do it alone. By meditating in the company of a yogi who can give shaktipat, the yogi may give you shaktipat through will alone and you won’t have any idea why your meditation exploded into bliss unless the yogi decides to tell you what went on.

Kundalini kriyas

After shaktipat, and as kundalini purifies the system, spontaneous movements, mental images, feelings, etc. may occur. They are called kriyas and they are perfectly in order. One usually lets them happen unless, of course, they would call unwanted attention to one in a public place, for example. In that case one can just ignore the impulse or get out of the meditative state, that generated the kriya.

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