What is Kundalini Shakti?
Kundalini Shakti is the procreation energy lying unused at the lower region of the body for very long. People who follow Tantra Yoga are those people who worship the feminine form of the Universal Force. They perceive the Universe as feminine energy and wish to have atma sakshat or God realization by arousing and stirring up Kundalini Shakti in them. The various forms or depiction of Kundalini Shakti in Indian mythology are of Goddess Durga, Kali, Bhuvaneshwari, Bhairavi and a few others. They all are various images and forms of Divine Mother with different powers attained for different purposes in this universe. Ultimately all the devotees of Divine Mother have one goal whether they are aware of it or not- to realize God by worshiping the eternal Primary Force as feminine.
In our body, we have three main nadis or life currents-Ida, Pingala and Sushmna. In most of the persons at the normal level of consciousness, the energy currents pass through only two channels Ida and Pingala. The central Sushumna is dormant. Ida lies to the left side and has cool currents and is compared to the moon, while Pingala is located to the right and compared to the Sun and has warm currents passing through it. Sushumna is situated in the centre of both these nadis. It remains dormant and cannot be accessed without proper activation and expert supervision. It plays a crucial role for the sadhak at an advanced stage of spiritual intensification and expansion. Activation of Sushumna is mandatory for higher realizations.
Importance of Sushumna Nadi
If one takes a peep inside our spine, it will show that it is a hollow tube and is like a conduit pipe in which are located multitude of nerves or nadis and nerve ends. The fact is that out of these three nadis majority of people function on only the two nerve channels-ida and pingala as there is no current in the middle nadi and one may wonder why. Sushuma is a special nerve used for carrying very fine currents of electromagnetic rays from higher levels of Consciousness. Once this is aroused, the man is capable of approaching and accessing very high levels of knowledge and subtle comprehension as well as divine perceptions. Kundalini Shakti is often compared to a serpent with three and half coils. It is believed so for the simple reason that Sushumna is coiled at the base, at the tip of the tail bone lying floppy and curled. To demystify the myth, please know that it is coiled and curly just because it has no current passing through it and is in disuse for so long as has been explained in detail in the text of previous post. One activated it is straightened up.
At the subtlest level, the release at last
At muladhar chakra lie the remnant energies of present and past life incarnations which block the Kundalini Shakti. The dust like energies which are in many layers cover the Sushumna. But when the soul begins to redeem itself through purification by doing good karmas, silence, peace, doing meditation, pranayam, eating saatvik food, his mind and heart becomes dirt-free. Dust of ego, vanity, desires, greed and similar vices begin to fade away as he undergoes intense tapas. At this juncture, the Guru wherever he is, through his prakash punj or blazing light sends his disciple shakti through his sankalpa, mind power which we call shakti paat. This is transmission of rays of Divine light through mind power. That light enters and penetrates our navel and whatever unharvested seeds of karmas are still remaining in the muladhar are now disintegrated and burnt by the guru.
The specific action consequently reduces our karmic suffering in the future to come by eliminating difficult life situations in the form of diseases, lack of prosperity, physical sufferings, bad luck and mental turbulence and so on. As the Light from the Guru arrives at the navel area, the dormant Sushumna begins to throb. That’s why people may find tingling sensations at the base on arousal of Kundalini Shakti. The Shakti after stirring up muladhar chakra, rotates and spins spirally inside the spinal cord cleaning the conduit pipe. The vortexes or energy chakras get cleaned up of the lying of unwanted elements of toxins and debris of future karmic consequences as the shakti rises up.
The risen supposed serpent or Kundalini cleans the lower chakras and when it rushes and reaches the agya chakra, the blazing light intensifies our vision by giving us clarity of thoughts and finer perceptions. With this light are awakened many other micro nadis which help us to cultivate and open of the third eye, Shiva’s third eye providing paranormal vision and sixth sense. Thus an apparatus and a medium are created through which we can now connect directly to the Cosmic Consciousness without effort. The third eye is the door to heaven because communication with the Almighty is possible through intuition, a faculty in humans which can never mislead or misguide us. Meditation aids in further fine tuning with the voice of God. Intuition or the sixth sense is extremely essential for humans because there is no possibility of erring and suffering as the Voice of God will always tell you to do actions which are in welfare of all.
The silent and extremely gentle shakti further moves up from agya chakra to the upper portions of the body reaching the cerebrum or sahastrar chakra to act on it. The crown chakra is the centre of God realization and divine illumination. The whole process takes a few weeks or months or years or lives depending on each individual’s positive force of good karmas and is not an instant phenomenon as made out to be by some unthinking people.
As explained earlier, smriti is a very important factor and tool in God realization. In smriti lies embedded all the memories of past life incarnations that we have ever lived since our inception. With activation of Kundalini, we are able to see some important phases and landmarks of a few past and future lives. In this way, God helps us to relive our past lives by being so compassionate and understanding. Alongside with the activation and glimpse of our previous lives, are also washed the pain, sorrow, separation from beloveds, remorse, grief and trauma of sad incidents and other life altering experiences. The remembrance of good memories and happy incidents give us hope and joy. A new wave of creative powers is inducted whereby one sees unexpected talents, gifts and special abilities in himself because of this shakti.
Subsequent to this, another portion of the smriti is opened up in due course after past lives’ regression. And that is the memory or smriti of God as Light that was experienced at our inception and forgotten for such a very long spell. The kind Guru gives us an experience of face to face with God represented as blazing Light. And in that radiating light are burnt all the possibilities of ever erring in future and an end to all our troubles and entrapment of directionless re-incarnations!!
God is perfect happiness
Once the smriti, the memory of oneness with Divinity is revived, we experience bliss of exceedingly sweet nature unknown so far to us. The nectar of bliss cannot be compared with anything of this fleeting world because of anshik or imperfect happiness in this imperfect world! And God is perfect happiness. And thus at last, comes to an end our long yatra or journey which had started off way back in time and space over millions of years. The tormented soul is liberated at last to bathe in bliss and peace!!
What is not Kundalini Shakti ?
- It is not sexual energy. It should also not be used for sexual activities to empower oneself unethically. In fact it is procreation energy which helps us to evolve and advance faster in spiritual unfolding.
- It is not a serpent. Serpent is only a comparison, a metaphor to understand the concept. God allowed only graphic interpretation so far hence we have so many types of illustrations of Goddess Shakti and yantra and chakras.
- The serpent is not coiled. In fact the Sushumna nadi is coiled at the base because of deactivation. Sushumna and the other nerves at the head are in a cluster and look like a hood of a snake with its tail at the end of the spine. Hence it is said that the serpent is coiled three and a half times at the base.
- Once the shakti is revived, the emergence of extra-ordinary abilities and skills are not possessed at random by the recipient. They are the abilities which we had acquired in our past lives and are stored in the memory and re-emerged as the electric currents passed through the brain. But further acquiring of more genius qualities is possible only with our continuous efforts of today.
Conclusion
Two main purposes of activating Kundalini Shakti
- to open sahasrar chakra
- To arouse smriti
Tantra is a holy ancient science of revival powers. People mishandle and misapply it and use it in place of black magic, sorcery, voodoo, and other sciences of natural forces. Beware of those people who misguide you in the garb of religion, yoga or spirituality.
Sarva mangalam maangaleye Shive sarvarth sadhike I
Sharanye Trayambake Gauri Narayani namostute II
Meaning: O Mother! You are the personification of all that is auspicious. You are the benevolent form of Lord Shiva. You bestow Divine energy and help people achieve righteousness, wealth, fulfill desires and liberation. You are worthy of being surrendered to. Three eyes adorn you O Devi! O Narayani Devi I pay obeisance to you!
(With this post are concluded the series of four topics on yogic diet, mind empowerment and dormant energies called Kundalini Shakti or coiled, dormant energies)