Kundalini Process Part from the book My Meetings with Yogis
A human being is a universe in miniature. Everything you find in the cosmos can be found within every individual, and all the principles governing the universe are also valid for the individual. Kundalini is divine cosmic energy, whose awakening and merging with the active principle, Shakti, leading to insights into reality, the ultimate truth around us, which in the "normal" state of consciousness is hiding its secret, skillfully linking us with the passing fancies of the world that we must inevitably leave. According to tantric philosophy, the whole universe is manifestation of pure consciousness. Swami Rama says that consciousness is divided into two aspects. One retains a static quality and remains identified with the unmanifest consciousness. In Tantra this quality is called Shiva, the male principle. The second part of this polarity is dynamic, energetic and creative aspect which is called Shakti, the great mother of the universe, because all forms were born from her. Sri Siddheshwar Baba is one of the, I think, genuine Indian guru who has passed all the stages of enlightenment in a particularly dramatic way, as described in detail in his books. While he was still working on his master's thesis in the field of education, he was called B. S. Goel, and he later took the spiritual name Sri Siddheshwar Baba.
"... Yet in 1964. I had an attack of heavy depression. It completely overwhelmed me. I remembered that I had previously practised some yoga exercises and pranayama (special breathing techniques in yoga), and then felt a rush of heat that started from bottom of the spine and ended up on top. Then fears come from somewhere, and my life became a real hell. Such experience is simply impossible to put into words. I wasn't comfortable neither society nor solitude, nor hunger nor food, nor sleep or awakening. All the time I was ruled by feelings of depression and anxiety ... ". With that, at a later doctor of humanities and former devotees of Marxism and Freud, has began the process of raising of the kundalini life force, which, according to Indian tradition, that we have concluded our spiritual evolution on Earth, it should be to travel through the seven energy points on the body, called chakras. Some describe these chakras as a kind of vortex of energy that are accelerated by climbing of the kundalini force by the central channel, and thus eliminate samskaras from consciousness, the impressions of past lives, and, in general, all those clues in human consciousness that Maharishi considers when he talks about stress. When the chakras are blocked and the energy is stagnant in them, whirling is disturbed or even take a reverse direction of clockwise, while in more severe disease leads to severe distortions swirl. Each of the chakras, when it powers on its upward path is activated, it reacts in different ways. If fully "open", the practitioner usually has some experience of unusual ability or power, and if such a process, due to wrong practice of some techniques, is incomplete, this results in a very specific problems. Before I start to describe the way in which Sri Siddheshwar Baba reached the last stop, Sahasrara chakra, here's a brief presentation of chakras and symptoms by which we can see if any of them is activated in us. Due to that there are certain, minor differences in the descriptions of these experiences, we must note that this is a description that has given me great Indian mystic Sri Shivabalayogi Maharaj, a year before he left his body, while he was in his temple near the city of Bangalore. It should be noted that we are talking about the aspect of kundalini force, kundalini shakti, the part that is, as yogis say, three and a half times wrapped around the lower part of the spine. Of course, it's not the physical body, but other energy body, which correspond to the location of parts of the physical body, which we would mention in the descriptions. Mind of ordinary man, as Shivabalayogi spoke, "present" in the first three, the lower energy centers, in principle shows no spiritual aspirations, but it is quite preoccupied with materialistic, worldly desires. However, when one starts from the lowest chakra, dormant kundalini then activates the first, so-called Muladhara chakra, usually a man suddenly grows strong desire to intensify sadhana, a spiritual practice. It often happens that during the concentration exercises he has visions of the deity who is particularly fond of, or whose mantra is used. Muladhara chakra is normally located between the anus and testicles, of course, when it comes to men. "Kundalini is divine, the cosmic energy, whose awakening and merging with the active principle, the Shakti, leading to insights into reality, the ultimate truth around us, which in the 'normal' state of consciousness is hiding her secret, skillfully bindings us with the passing illusions of the world that we must inevitably leave". Kundalini awakes spontaneously (sometimes in women during childbirth), devotion to God, repetition of mantras, and various techniques of Yoga and Shaktipat, touch by guru. Pretty, but less known practice, is related to the human tongue. On the one hand, the tongue is interesting because every thought is followed by unconscious moving of the muscles in this organ, which is the most difficult to relax. Theoretically, with the total relaxation of tongue we come to a state of no-mind, which is essential to the path of yoga. Concentration on various parts of the tongue, will be reflected in our consciousness. Concentration of attention to the root of the tongue leads to awakening kundalini, but also the ability to listen "the divine sound". Concentration on the tip of the tongue leads to the experience of tasting "divine nectar", that Kirpal Singh identified with manna from the Bible, while perfectly reducing attention to the center of tongue develops in the practitioner might of "divine touch". By the way, concentration on the nose develops "divine flair" and is called varta siddhi. Swadhisthana chakra located on the spine, at about the height of the genitals. A sign that this chakra is awakened, it is usually a feeling of constant anxiety and a desire to wander from place to place, or to be in a constant "moving." Sometimes the insatiable hunger may occurs, and often depression arise because a pleasant and interesting experience that the practitioner had previously, may be lost. Disability of calming the mind can be overcomed only by regular practice, which sometimes involves extending the daily practice of concentration. When the constant practice activates Manipura chakra, yogi is starting to have experience of perfect concentration and samadhi. It is located on the spine, at the level of the navel. Soon he needs just a few moments to achieve this state of no-mind, complete calm of the spirit. It is the first time he begin to manifest strange powers, such as the possibility of materialization on the distance. Obstacle to the further development is the sense of pride and vanity, which then occurs. He feels the need to show others what he can, and this leads to a reduction in his commitment and humility, so he can get stuck in his spiritual development towards higher levels of consciousness. The only way that this growth continues, is a waiver of any power that occurs on that way. This chakra, like the previous one, swadhisthana, according to some authors, plays a vital role in what we call mental health. Unpleasant contents of the unconscious can be, if we have them stored there in excessive amounts, wake up with such force that they can lead to insanity. Sri Siddheshwar Baba warns of thoughts that occur during meditation, and can not be controlled, no matter how unpleasant or abnormal. In yoga, there are breathing techniques and postures, called asanas, that help purify the energy tubules of the human body, called nadi, thereby facilitating problems that we face on the path to spiritual development. But nothing is no guarantee that we will not fall as a victim to the illusion created by the mind, and they will be especially realistic if the kundalini will not raise to the higher centers in the whole, but only partialy, as I learned from the mouth of Swami Narayananada. It appears somewhat typical, it describes also Sri Siddheshwar Baba. One begins to believe that he is very high on spiritual progress and starts to play the guru, spiritual teacher, claiming to have special powers, travels at "higher levels", mentaly contacts masters of higher planes of existence, he is psychic because he has "open third eye", thus can heal, with using of spiritual or, as some say, the "divine" energy. "Unpleasant contents of the unconscious, can, if we have them stored there in excessive amounts, wake up with such a force that can lead to madness" We live in a time in which some mystics claim that is characterized by increased activity in the lower chakras. According to Siddheshwar Baba, most of the people today are predominantly in Manipura chakra, while Satyananda Saraswati claim that in this time people spontaneously develop Anahata chakra, regardless of whether they are dealing with a spiritual practice or not. Thus, the partial lifting of the kundalini shakti can be spontaneous also at people who are not engaged in any kind of meditation. A person who comes into this situation starts a very dangerous fantasy, which mislead those seeking for authentic spiritual teachings, that can only be transfered by someone who has come to the end of that road. And these are extremely rare. Those whose "third eye" or sixth center or the Ajna chakra is open, don't ever speak to others about their future or dealing with other kinds of sorcery. People suffering from this disorder in spiritual development, often have a strong sense of their own size and importance, convince people around them to their charisma, founde the sect and invent rituals that are sometimes just an expression of their sexual frustration and vanity, based on illusion and the stupidity of others. Real egomania that culminates in a sick desire for social recognition based on material achievements, the average man's dreams of glory and admiration for the environment and an obsessive fear of losing status in the society, are basically disturbances in the lower three chakras in man. Pornography, the flood of erotic movies and all forms of sexual perversion only provoking kundalini shakti, which runs before her time, and the epidemic of mental health problems, such as severe anxiety and depression, suicidal ideas, confirms that this vital energy, which should be channeled very, very carefully, in its unbridled form is extremely dangerous. Ego is tightly struggling for recognition, acknowledgment and recognition of the environment, confirmation of the value and importance of the body in which he moves through this world. To be somebody, to have a recognizable "image", make an impression of success, it is certain sign of subconscious panic fear of extinction, scattering of ego. While Western psychiatry advised methods to strengthen the ego, trying to avoid the psychological crisis that manifests itself thru fears, depression and lack of self-worthlessness, yoga aims to expand the ego on the entire phenomenal world. To achieve this we should, in a certain sense, sacrifice the small, individual ego, which is tremendously difficult, because the mind thru the evolution built defenses system of unpleasant psychic experiences that quickly makes a man to give up the fight against his own ego. And there's a reward in the form of pleasure and satisfaction, which receives the one who feeds his ego with temporarily and illusory values of the material world. The path towards the eventual realization of the true meaning of existence is not going through that bypasses of the unpleasant emotions, but through the crisis posed by our lower ego, wee need to break by intensification of our spiritual practice. Thru exercise kundalini shakti is rising gradually to the higher chakras, and the one that connects upper chakras with those below is Anahata chakra, and it is located in the spinal cord, at approximately heart level. A sign that someone has made it to this chakra is to gain power, which is called vachan siddhi. Everything that says yogi who has mastered this fourth chakra, becomes truth. He can move wherever he wants, using sukshuma sharir, his astral body, while his physical body remains in the same place. This phase is the last test in the material universe, because there is the pride which appears of its maximum intensity. One begins to believe that in the spiritual sense, he is beyond of his personal guru, and often he detache from him and begins to preach learning on his own. Yogis say that "pride comes before the fall", for anyone who has succumbed to this final trap of material ego, in the evolution will regress. Sri Siddheshwar Baba, when he fell into a mental crisis whose description I gave earlier, sought help from psychiatrists, Ayurvedic doctors, mystics, and many others, who, however, as he said to me, could not help him. His paranoia is becoming more sinister by the day, so, to ease the pain, he began with psychoanalysis. While he sat in a chair in an empty hall of his ashram, located among the green fields in Haryana, he watched me through the thick glass of his spectacles, reminding me irresistibly to Ray Charles. He was 60 years old then, wearing a typical Indian orange robe and told me: "You would not believe how much yogis of great reputation I visited. None of them didn't advise me exactly what to do. When kundalini shakti was launched, I was left to myself. So many famous ones, and so few who actually know something ... ". His encounter with yoga, that will carry him for years through terrible emotional crisis to enlightenment, came almost by accident, in a hostel. He lodged there during a break in a trip through India, and bumped there to a young swami, to whom he complained about the difficulties of which he suffers. He advised him to try the technique of concentration on the space between the eyes, with the repetition of mantra "Om Soham" with distinctive visualization related to the respiratory process. As far as I understand it, he never met again this man. But the methods he have kept. "Once the whole process is started, one shouldn't practice for hours a day," he explained. "Sometime less than half an hour of exercise a day is enough, that the effects are dramatic to the extent that you think you will not be able to persist ...". Interestingly, some yogis like Swami Maheshwarananda, who most of the year reside in Vienna, and has a large center in Rajasthan, consider that raising of the kundalini shakti to the highest chakras can elapse without all these unpleasant mental experience. Under condition that the body and the psyche are prepared with a number of different yoga exercises. Dr. Goel began gradually to realize his own spiritual evolution mechanism, which was painful, but one day it brought an unexpected ally. After seven years of meditation, future guru dreamed a strange dream. "I dreamed of Sathya Sai Baba who blessed me in a dream and told me that I should stubbornly continue with meditation, because everything I do has a purpose. He also told me that he is always with me. It was critical, as it was only then that I realized that what I do is not merely therapy for my problems. I began to feel that my awareness and attention automatically move to the point a little lower than the scalp, the back of the skull. This point is called brahma randra and suddenly I felt it was there or near that point, the end of my journey. In meditation I often felt a burning sensation or scratching at that site. Actually, I realized that the end of the journey is between the points amid the eyebrow and the brahma randra (door of the brahman). I suddenly had a feeling that below that point on the skull are some nerves that must play a decisive role in breaking barriers ... that we call liberation ...". Wave of intense vision in which Dr. Goel on the inner screen between the eyebrows have met symbols and deities from Krishna and Shiva to Jesus Christ, they brought him into a state of ecstasy, filled with ineffable bliss. When he already believed that his ego is handed to the universal love, then appered a frightening crisis filled with hopelessness, black thoughts and fears, and that his mind constructed with intention to distracte him from the road from which there was no turning back. "It's like when you swim from one coast to the other," he explained to me as we walked among the garden beds with flowers inside his ashram. "At one time you are on the half way, and it seems that you will never reach the other shore. Only thing you can do is try your best to roll on. What kept me in those moments when I had the feeling that I'm losing myself irrevocably in the madness, was the appearance of Sai Baba on my inner screen. Somehow I knew that he was leading me, although I've never contacted him. It always make me relieved after such a vision, he came some respite from the horror that I endured, and I and continued on. Look, you came from the Christian world, where history remembers many saints. When reading about the sufferings that these people have passed on the path of purification, you just think that you know what it looked like. Price of spiritual illumination is total commitment, and this principle applies equally to all, regardless of the tradition to which you belong. And when someone wants to commit to the universal, absolute Truth, his little human mind get in the way, and creates all possible obstacles, with intent to force you to quit ... ".
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