Kundalini, maybe it's the most speculated topics apart from meditation and yoga.
Kundalini is a form of cosmic energy which maintains the life of creatures in these chain of universes. Kundalini energy is also known as 'Prana' or 'Life force.'
The chief difference between Cosmic energy and Kundalini is;
"Cosmic energy is the energy that bears this vast cosmos. Kundalini is the customized form of this which bears life."
Kundalini awakening happens by efficient supply of cosmic(Kundalini) energy, which activates your chakras and thereby you gain access to the Earth's energy.
So, where does this energy reside?
As rightly told by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev;
"Kundalini is everywhere."
For us, it resides in Root Chakra/Muladhara Chakra. The Root chakra, which is the energy center located near the coccyx, acts as an entrance for the Cosmic energy, thereby activates Kundalini. Kundalini is also the energy of 'Spiritual Consciousness.'
This energy goes through Brahma/Sushumna Nadi, from the Root chakra to the Crown chakra on the top of the head. Interestingly, there's a mention of Kundalini energy in Gayatri Mantra as 'Dhee' energy or Spiritual Consciousness. Here it's;
Essence of Gayatri Mantra.
AUM Bhoohu Bhuva Suvaha Tath Savituhu Varenyam। Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi Dheeyoyonaha Prachodayaath ।।
Aum- Aksharaha,(indestructible) Bhoohu - earth Bhuvaha - intermediate sky Suvaha - Heaven Tath - that Savituhu- Sun Bhargaha- radiance or light Dheemahi- meditate on Dheeyoyonaha- intelligence or spiritual consciousness Prachodayaath- Awaken
'I meditate on the Lord Narayana (AUM) who illuminates the sun who in turn illuminate earth, intermediate sky & heaven with his divine radiance, to awaken my intelligence and spiritual consciousness.'
Sage Vishwamitra is accredited with the cognizance of Gayatri Mantra.
AUM- Aksharaha, Lord Vishnu, or Para Brahma.
A- Creation
U- maintenance
M- destruction
Lord Krishna says - Aham Tam Eeshwaranam Paramam Mahesharam.
'I am the Supreme Lord (Parama Eeeshwaraha) of all Lords.'
Kundalini awakening over a period of time, completely cleanses chakras, the body parts and the energy channels/Nadis.
Credits- Pinterest
Some of the benefits Kundalini energy awakening include:
1. Gain insights and intuition As the energy rises up the spine, you may gain insights and strong inner feelings about what to do or which decision to make. It is beyond the intellect, a kind of divine guidance that comes in the form of synchronicity, strange signals, or a strong sense of certainty about following a certain path. Your guardian angel guide you towards everything. By the grace of my Guru & Gurus, I've been guided towards my destiny.
credits- Pinterest
2. Freedom from desires
Physical desires keep us bound to the material world. The more we desire and consume to satisfy our senses, the further we are pulled from the spiritual realm. There's no end to human desires, and also to our frustrations.
Kundalini awakening comes with a great pull towards the spiritual and the world of the senses becomes less and less appealing. Thus it becomes easier to control those animal cravings.
Credits- Pinterest
3. Psychic abilities
Some people experience psychic abilities like seeing the future, hearing other people’s thoughts, or observing scenes that are outside the realm of the physical senses. If this happens, I advise you to be careful. It is not a sign of true spiritual progress, but can actually be a distraction. Don’t get excited or attached to these things. It's a subordinate product of Kundalini awakening. Best to just ignore them or let them go. Only way telepathy helps you is; you can communicate with Guru's, ancestors, and spirits.
4. Greater compassion
You develop a greater sense of connection to everything and everyone, which creates a strong sense of compassion for other living creatures. You begin to feel very strongly that you want to care for and help other people. Especially, if you are a Heyoka empath, you feel very strongly. This is a much more powerful and meaningful experience that developing siddhis or abilities. It's very important to balance your compassion. You need to recharge every day by practicing meditation.
5. Creativity
The Universe is a great engine of creativity and you are a manifestation of that. As kundalini rises, you become more in touch with universal creativity which you can allow to flow through you. You are not a normal person creating something great, but a receptacle, channeling and expressing the great creativity of the Divine through your body an mind. You can receive information about vedic scriptures like Upanishads or events, while meditating or through communicating with your Gurus.
6. Greater magnetism
You will find that you have much more power to attract the things you want. You find your spiritual as well as life purpose. You find knowledge about your root incarnation. You experience strong ego annihilation.
When we are trapped in the prison of ego and delusion, we repel the things we want with our worried and negative thoughts. Of course, our desires begin to shift as the kundalini rises so instead of wishing for a huge house and a shiny, red car, our desires become more simple and we want to love, serve, and grow.
7. Waves of bliss
Sometimes in meditation, or even just in the midst of every day life, we can experience deep waves of all-consuming bliss. It knocks you off your feet. It is such a wonderful feeling where you know that everything is unfolding perfectly, that there are no problems, and that everything is in its right place. It is impossible to put into words.
"It's a priceless experience to meditate, to communicate with your guardian angels and masters."
8. Bursts of love
You might feel spontaneous bursts of love. It can be love for a certain object such as a person, animal, place, or thing. But sometimes it is a feeling of love that is free from any object. It is just love and it fills your being. You may find yourself with tears in your eyes when one of these bursts comes along.
Credits- Pinterest 9. Desire to serve Instead of being lost in your ego, worrying about what you need to do with your life, you just want to serve other people. You know that true joy comes from helping people. And in our world right now, people need a lot of help, so there are plenty of opportunities to serve. 10. Liberation In the end, when the kundalini has risen all the way to the top of the head, over the course of many years and lifetimes, you will enter into the deepest state of meditation known as 'Samadhi.' At that point, you will remember who you are beyond this dream world, and you will be in a permanent state of calm, joyful watchfulness.
"Kundalini Awakening releases you from this viscous painful chain of birth and rebirth."
Kundalini awakening is fantasized. Let me tell you, it's not a cake walk. We need to suffer and burn all our Chith, Prarabdha and Sanchita Karmas. Initially, it's almost like going through hell and eventually getting normal.
"You need enter darkness, stay there for a while, to find the light within."
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Here are the Light symptoms of Kundalini awakening:
You feel a spiritual connection with the Divine that transcends the ego.
You are bathed in bliss and boundless unconditional love.
You experience periods of Oneness with humanity & duality with the inner divinity, where your compassion for humanity increases & devotion towards divinity as well.
You tap into extrasensory abilities (ESP) and/or develop extraordinary gifts like art, writing, philosophy etc.
Pleasurable sensations pulsate through your body & mind.
You’re inspired to think & make big, life-altering decisions and authentic changes in your life
Synchronicity (i.e., meaningful or miraculous coincidences) increases tremendously.
You have profound insights into your behavior and past experiences.
Your empathic abilities strengthen and you can feel everything at a profound level.
Here are the Dark symptoms of Kundalini awakening:
You begin to understand the nature of the mind and how it influences your subjective reality.
You keep receiving big, cosmic “downloads” of information (soul communication). You could connect the people around to your past lives.
You understand it's not love it's the attachment towards everything that ultimately hurts.
You start to get answers for each event of your life including your sufferings, enjoyment, privileges.
You may have involuntary hand movements, practicing mudras(hand poses).
Materialistic things may not give you much pleasure.
You experience intense, involuntary shaking of the body that can be alarming, as a result of receipt of energy.
Your nervous system becomes hypersensitive to external stressors (bright light, TV violence, loud noises) and shuts down or craves total solitude.
You struggle to sleep properly.
You experience sudden and shocking moments of ego death.
You are able to differentiate between superficial ego & spiritual ego.*
You have visual disturbances that can feel alarming (e.g., objects seeming to vibrate) or hallucination.
You experience intense heat, vibrations, or electricity surge through your body esp. in chakras.
It feels like you’re having a bad drug trip while sober.
You struggle to distinguish what is real from imagined (psychosis) and feel like you’re going crazy.
You experience intense pains for no reason in Chakras.
You get answers to questions through various means.
You are in constant touch with your guardian angel (Guru).
**There are 2 types of EGO;
1. Superficial Ego: We are trapped by this most of times. Basically, it starts with the belief; 'I'm this body, this is my name, this is my life.' Well, on the contrary you are not this body, this name is just for this incarnation. Then who are you? You are spirit, a fearless soul(Atman). This ego has to be annihilated through SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS.
2. Divine Ego: This ego is inherently exists within us across incarnations, this is linked to the existence of spirit. Spirit is complete, it's divine because of the presence of Lord. We can annihilate this ego through consciousness and by spiritual consciousness, by understanding 'Aswantantra Kartrutva'. We'll be learning about this in separate post.
A Yogi at Asamprajnata Samadhi state.
The Kundalini rising can occur under these circumstances:
1. On having gone through the Patanjali yoga system under a Kundalini yoga master or Adept.
“According to the Goraksasataka, or "Hundred Verses of Goraksa", Hathayoga practices such as mulabandha, uddiyana bandha, jalandharabandha and practicing Astanga Yoga including Kumbhaka can awaken Kundalini.”
2. By Shaktipath from an Awakened master under personal guidance or through telepathy. Personally, I'm under telepathy guidance. Kundalini awakening intensified by multiple visits to transcendental state of hypnosis. All by my Guru's grace.
3. When going through without the guidance or under a novice.
# Involuntary
Under all these processes without having gone through the perfected practices, especially nadi shodhan, pranayama, bandhas, kriyas and accompanying meditation techniques the practitioner awakens the kundalini forcefully or otherwise he could experience the dark side of kundalini in the form explained. Why do we shouldn't accidentally awaken Kundalini?
We need to understand that's Kundalini is energy, excessive receipt of energy can hamper out system. It's like a transformer receiving excess current, beyond its capacity.
Let me tell you Kundalini isn't all a fantasy.
"You need to suffer as hell, before you enjoy the divine spiritual bliss."
Here's the dark side of Kundalini awakening:
1. As souls in physical form, we carry with us deep traumas not only from this life but from numerous past lives as well. We hold on so tightly to so many things in our life that are completely out of alignment with our authentic self — jobs, relationships, beliefs, biases, prejudices etc. These are called Sanskaras. Burning Karmas, Sanskaras are painful.
At the inception, just before/after light symptoms we enter THE DARK NIGHT OF A SOUL. This is the most painful, depressing, phase which may last from 3 to 18 years.
2. When the pure Kundalini energy becomes activated inside us and begins moving through our chakras, it begins uprooting everything that “doesn’t belong” in the process. Sometimes, we feel very strange to ourselves. It maybe tough for some individuals.
3.The physical/emotional symptoms that arise are called tapas or purification. These periods of physical & emotional sufferings are considered necessary — and ultimately beneficial — signs of spiritual initiation. That's how Karmas are burnt. The illness results from a profound inner cleansing and reconstruction of the body. This is actually a process of transcendental growth, preparing the body to tolerate ever increasing levels of energy, vibrations with high intensity.
4. In modern times, people who experience Kundalini psychosis usually do not know what is causing the problem and are often diagnosed as psychotic----- Psychosis.
#Kundalini Psychosis is also known as Kundalini syndrome. It is the cluster of physical or psychological problems that arise due to Kundalini awakening.
# NDE may be sign of kundalini awakening. Some of symptoms of Kundalini psychosis are hallucinations, obsessions, paranoia, etc.
Many have been institutionalized in psychiatric hospitals and treated, usually unsuccessfully, with strong medication and psychotherapy. Because the root of this disorder is actually energetic, the most effective cure for Kundalini psychosis is to suffer, learn the necessary life lessons, tranform & transcend yourself spiritually.
"Kundalini psychosis is where darkness stays for prolonged time. You need to give blood, sweat and tears to awaken the holy energy of Kundalini, to purify yourself."
#Bringing the energy down is much easier, but we should never let it down. We need to channel energy through channeling techniques like Analoma Viloma pranayama, Mindfulness, and through affirmations. Surrendering yourself to the Lord & submitting everything to him transfers all excess energy to him. You can us this affirmation after every yogic practice;
"Excess energy withdrawn."
Earth energy, Yin and magnetic, helps attract the energy downward, which results spiritual descendence. We need to balance the energy between Yin-Yang/Shiva-Shakti/Purusha-Prakriti/Ravi-Rayi. These information is all given in Shatprashnopanishath, we'll definitely write a post on it.
# Problems that can occur from lack of channeling include overheating, high blood pressure, headaches, heart palpitation or arrhythmia, lack of focus on the details of life, distracted-ness, or a general sense of “spiciness”. All these symptoms can usually be effectively prevented through the simple technique of energy channeling through affirmations, Analoma Viloma pranayama, and Mindfulness.
#Symptoms of a Kundalini awakening are often misdiagnosed as a whole slew of mental disorders — depression, bipolar, anxiety, and even psychosis.
# Physio sensory and auditory aberrations ie electrical impulses along sensory and motor cortices. This is one of the major symptoms. It's evident throughout your spiritual journey.
# Emotional “Looping” ie repetitve experience of past traumas .A traumatic experience may flash again and again.Your mind will start rewinding and replaying traumas, pivotal moments, and perceived “failures” over and over and over. You’ll begin exhibiting signs of PTSD related to incidents you rarely thought about prior to your awakening. These PTSD- like symptoms could come in the form of nightmares, vivid flashbacks (in which you’ll remember the incident in more specific detail than ever before in your life), or panic attacks.
One can counter this by complete acceptance of the ground reality. Techniques of meta-cognition will be extremely useful.
#People going through a Kundalini awakening report all kinds of physical symptoms from over-exhaustion to sicknesses to tension in different bodily energy points.
#Heightened Sense of Empathy
#Psychosis are of physio sensory and auditory aberrations i.e electrical impulses along sensory and motor cortices
#Involuntary jerks
#Crawling or tingling sensations
#Feeling of running of electric current
#Intense heat or cold
#Pressure inside skull
#A headache or a migraine
#Emotional numbness
#Mood swings
#Irregular heartbeat with hypertension
#Pain in the body mainly in neck and back
#Altered states of consciousness
#Disturbed sleep
#Visual and auditory hallucinations
##These symptoms can last for days, weeks, months, or even more.
Divine Kundalini is immensely powerful. Awakening Kundalini takes a lot of sadhana. Accidentally awakening Kundalini won't happen under normal circumstances, exceptions applicable.
"Divine Kundalini awakening happens once in a lifetime of several incarnations. If you respect & abide to the divine principles & practices, it'll relieve you forever from the painful vicious cycle of life & rebirth."
Even after Kundalini awakening happens we can experience spiritual descendance, and fallback to the same position where we started. One such reasons for this fallback is ANGER, LUST, ARROGANCE, GREED, RESENTMENT, & DISILLUSIONMENT known as 'Arishatvargaaha'(The six enemies to spiritual growth) which make humans to enjoy devilish pleasures.
Is Kundalini awakening necessary for enlightenment, or are the two unrelated?
Enlightenment is the liberation of one’s consciousness from the narrow confines imposed by the illusions of the mind and ego. It replaces mundane misunderstandings and false beliefs with pure awareness and true insight. It awakens one to the knowing of absolute truth, understanding the essence of all being. Spiritual awakening & enlightenment is the process of attaining knowledge of 'self' & divinity. Kundalini is the enegy that fuels enlightenment. Although, enlightenment or entering the state of Samadhi is at a later stage.
Asamprajnata Samadhi is the last but two stage of attaining Nirvana. Entering it is called 'Enlightenment'
So coming to question, Kundalini Awakening & Spiritual Awakening are two complementary processes of releasing a soul from this vicious cycle of birth & rebirth. Enlightenment starts with Kundalini Awakening, as Kundalini is the energy that fuels enlightenment. These two are mutually complementary inclusive processes which are inseparable. In the previous paragraphs, there was a mention of psychic abilities. They are the product of early stages of Kundalini awakening. If we rely too much on them, they fuel our ego then we experience spiritual descendence.
Some may theorize that both aren't connected. It's not true, because it's like trying to launch off a rocket without the necessary fuel. Kundalini is fuel, representative energy of consciousness.
Finally, if you are really committed & devoted to God, definitely you'll be relieved from this viscous painful cycle of death & rebirth.
Hope this inspires you!!
Yadu