KUNDALINI YOGA – AN INTRODUCTION
by Yogi Bhajan
Yogi Bhajan, master of white tantric and kundalini yoga started teaching in America in January 1969. He is the director of Spiritual Education. for the Healthy, Happy, Holy organisation (3HO), which has expanded to over 100 centres teaching Kundalini yoga throughout the world.
"I have recognised with the blessing of my master, that it is possible to be healthy, to be happy, and to be holy while living in this society. You must have energy so that your dead computer may live and pass on the signal to you and may compute all that you want to do in this society. We call it, in the olden science, the Kundalini,.. which has been blocked in Muladhara, the lowest of all chakras or lotuses.
- These are all imaginary things. Great big books have been written on them, and these books also misled me for many years. Still I learned about it; and all these chakras (or circles, as we call them in English) have put us in so many circles that we do not come out of it, and we reach to nowhere. There is a way we should get our computer to be in direct contact with him, the Biggest computer; and things must then work automatically. That can’t work until the Kundalini, the spiritual nerve, breaks through the blockage at Muladhara, and thus, travels up and reaches the stage that you may have Superconsciousness in Consciousness.
It is to generate the pressure of the prana and mix it with the apana and thus, when the two join together, you generate it in the pranic centre; with this heat of the prana, you put a pressure or charge on the Kundalini, the soul nerve, three and a half circles coiled (Kundal means "the coil in the curl of the hair of the beloved"; it does not mean snake or serpent) on muladhara, and thus awaken it, so that it may pierce, through the imaginary chakras and pass ultimately through Jalandhara Bandha (Neck Lock - the final blockage in the spine before the energy reaches the head):
Now, let me define a few terms. Prana is the life force. It is the life force of the atom. Apana is emination or eliminating force. These are two forces, positive & negative, in us which are governed by pingala and ida, that is, right and left. When we join these two energies under the power and the science of Kundalini Yoga, we mix the prana with the apana and bring, under that pressure, the Kundalini up. When it passes through the central nerve or Sushumana it reaches the higher chakras or lotuses; and thus man can easily look into the future. His psychic power gets enlightened. He can know his total surroundings and he is a blessed being.
After one inhales the prana deep (down to the navel point) and pulls the apana with root lock (up to the navel point), prana and apana mix at the navel centre. This is known as Nabhi Chakra or Fourth Vertebra. Heat is felt during the Kundalini awakening and that heat is the filament of the Sushumana or central spinal channel being lit by the joining of prana and apana. Below the Nabhi chakra, the energy leaves the navel aid goes to the rectum (or lower centre) and then it rises. This is called Reserve Channels. It relates to your Astral Body.
Then, there are six more chakras through which the Kundalini must rise; and it will happen all at once; and once you have raised it, that’s it. But the hardest job is to keep it up, to keep the channels clean and clear.
From the rectum to the vocal cord is as the silver cord. From the neck to the top of the head is passage. From the third eye to the pineal gland is the gold cord. To make the energy rise in these cords and passages, you must apply hydraulic locks. You must put a pressure. You live in California? You know how we take the oil from the ground? Put a pressure and the oil will come out. It is a staircase of energy.
The pineal gland or seat of the soul does not work when the tenth gate (top of the head) is sealed. But if pineal will secrete (when the Kundalini heat comes), your pituitary will act as radar, keeping the mind from negativity.
Yes, Kundalini is known as the nerve of the soul; and this has to be awakened, and when soul gets awakened, there remains nothing. What else?
In the practical reality, these chakras are imaginary and nothing else. This Kundalini is just a Kundalini and nothing else, and it is not very important. These pranas and apanas are just there. Everything is set in us. We lack nothing. We use these terms simply to make the process clear so we can get on. It is very simple. After getting myself into the darkness for years together, I found it was so easy, I could have saved myself a lot of hassle.
When I found the kundalini really can come up like this, I was astonished! It was a surprise to me. I said "That’s all there is to the Kundalini?" and my master said "Yes."
All it is, is creating the prana in that cavity, and mixing it with apana, and taking it down (as we give pressure to the oil), and bringing the oil up is Kundalini. That’s it. That is the greatest truth. Truth is bitter, I know, so I cannot speak all the truth. But I speak indirect and direct truth, because I cannot speak something beyond truth. I have realised the truth, and the fact is you cannot breathe by your will. It is the God in you which breathes. Without that, you do not breathe. Now what is this breath business? I tell you.
It is good information to the medical people. Under the eighth vertebra there is a cavity. We call it prana centre. Good? In that prana centre, with the breathing up to the tip of the tongue and-on to the ida and pingala, which adjust the temperature of the body, we breathe pranic energy. Pranic energy is the life force of the atom. If, fifty years ago, I would have talked to you about atomic energy you would have said, "Go away. We don’t understand you." When I talk pranic energy ,don’t feel that I am talking something mystic. It is practical. This pranic energy is the life of the atom. We store it her (8th vertebra down). We know certain actions through which we inhale with this pranic energy, and when we inhale with this pranic energy, our pranic centre gets awakened. The pranic centre supplies the pranic energy to the pranic nerve, and the pranic nerve supplies the pranic energy to the muscles, which are responsible for the beat of the heart and that of the diaphragm. We call it "U" muscle, because it is shaped like the letter "U" and this "U" muscle is responsible for all this life current in you which is automatic, beyond your control. You know what these Yogis do? They create pranic energy reservoirs in that cavity, and so they live on that reserve. This is what they do. They make the cavity active with certain exercises; and thus, they know how to control the pranic energy or prana-vayu, the life current. That’s one part of it. The second is apana, which eliminates everything. It is where the Kundalini power lives. Now, when the pranic energy is in you, then the second part is that you can circulate it through your body. You can feel it and make people feel it; we teach people how to do it. It is a scientific thing that has got nothing to do with mystics, or something which I can’t explain. It is so simple, it is practical, and so we circulate it.
In the circulation we time it to go with the spinal cord. Then we make it hit the Muladhara. Thus we pierce through that bind or blockage before the Kundalini power. The moment we do it, she has no option but to come up, and the moment she comes up, you stand blessed. Then you will see; the computer will work. That’s all.
Is it difficult? There is no secret about it. In twenty, thirty days, if you honestly practise it about one hour, two hours each day, you can be through with it, and this is what I did.
Two cautions: You must practice neck lock. Pull the neck straight in, keeping the spine and neck absolutely straight with no bend of the neck. The higher flood of circulation will cause cells of the brain to expand because of the higher circulation of blood to that region and people shall go mad, half-mad or die, because the lock was not there!!
Secondly, when you do yoga, please, for God’s sake, remember, you are playing with the energy which is the life force of the atom. You must understand what you are doing. I’m giving you a word of warning.
The fact remains that without having the Kundalini awakened, your soul is not awakened, and if your soul is awakened, what else do you need? If you will get into the action to awaken the Kundalini, the nerve of the soul, and thus this car of yours will be driven or chauffeured by the soul and not by the negative ego, then you have found God in you; and I shall be the greatest man on earth, if I shall be privileged to touch the dust of your feet, if you had that state.
R inked with permission from ‘Beads of Truth’: Summer 1972. Editor in chief, Guru Amrit Kaur Khalsa. -Copyright 1986 by the 3HO Foundation, a non profit corporation dedicated to the advancement of the individual through education, science and religion. 1620 Preuss Road, Angeles, California 90035.