w.whitman - kundalini part 2

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"Song of Myself" as Kundalini Yantra

 

While reading Walt Whitman's poetry, I was struck by the remarkable

similarity between his poetry and Tantric beliefs. In this paper I

document this amazing convergence of ideas and concepts between the

East and the West This is all the more remarkable, since Whitman

apparently rediscovered tantric philosophy on his own, without ever

having read the Hindu text.

 

TANTRA

 

Tantra is a meditational technique and a complex metaphysical belief

system. Central to its teaching is the concept that reality is a

unity. This unity is called Shiva-Shakti--Cosmic Consciousness . The

individual has the potential to realize and equate himself with

Cosmic Consciousness. The purpose of Tantra is to intuit this reality

and achieving yoga—the merging of the individual self's identity with

the universal self.

 

The tantric sadhaka (aspirant or seeker) develops the latent powers

of the body to achieve this goal. He uses for this purpose Kundalini

Shakti or the Serpent Power, a complex psychophysical force that,

according to the practitioners of this doctrine, ordinarily lies

almost untapped in the body. This extraordinary power center lies

between the human body and in the cosmos as a whole. It is located at

the base of the spine, nourished by energy from food and air, and

from ethical and spiritual development. It can be expressed in sexual

activity or transmuted into a subtle form that rises from the spinal

column into a center in the brain, enlarging consciousness. The

sudden movement from the base of the spine is the awakening of the

Serpent power. This form is evolutionary, both in its expression of

the procreative urge and its internal union within the human body,

opening a door to the inspired consciousness that guides the progress

of the human race through sages, seers, geniuses, artists and others.

 

The transformation of consciousness, brought about by the arousal of

the Kundalini, introduces a new element into the field of perception.

The world of the mind, imperceptible before, becomes cognizable,

bringing another area of creation within the reach of our

consciousness. The impact of the surpassing glory, the wonder and the

joy of the new experience is the cause of the ecstasy. The awakening

of Kundalini implies the renewed activity of the same life-force to

refashion the brain to a higher dimension of awareness, which

fashions it in the womb and keeps it alive and sane every moment of

our life.

 

There are different energy centers that are called Chakras (nerve

centers) located in the cerebrospinal axis. They are usually

represented as lotuses. As Kundalini reaches each chakra, the lotus

opens and lifts its flower, and as soon as she leaves for another

chakra, the lotus closes its petals and hangs down, symbolizing the

activation of the energy of the chakra and their assimilation into

Kundalini. The increasing number of lotus petals, in ascending order,

may be taken to indicate the rising energy or vibration-frequency of

the receptive chakras, each functioning as a "transformer."

 

The seven major chakras are situated at vital spots in the body and

control the organs of reproduction, digestion, blood circulation,

respiration etc. Kundalini circulates in all vital organs, including

the brain. There is no exact correspondence between metaphysical body

and subtle body. However, for the sake of simplifying the idea of the

tantric centres, locations in the physical body are mapped to

represent different chakras; Muladhara, Svadhisthana, Manipura,

Anahata, Visuddha, Ajna and Sahasrara Chakra.

 

Muladhara Chakra: means the base or the root. This centre is at the

base of the spinal cord, where Kundalini lies in a dormant form,

controlling the evolution of every human being and waiting to be

aroused by those with an ardent desire for self-awareness.

 

Svadhisthana Chakra: This energy centre is, in Freud's words,

the "domain of libidinous impulses, the primordial, elemental

passions and desires of human life." These are the basic instinctual

drives. Svadhisthana, which prevent premature suppression or ascetic

annihilation of instinctual drives.

 

Manipura Chakra: plays an important role in the integral knowledge as

A source of unsuspected abilities for establishing the glory of truth

and love in the world.

 

Anahata Chakra: this is the love centre, the heart centre and the

centre of the psyche. This centre transforms the joys of being into

the joys of giving.

 

Visuddha Chakra: the throat centre. Its function is the ability to

see things as they are--everything in its suchness. At this centre,

the initiate is intuitively illumined with knowledge and inspired

with love, using words as an affective tool of communication of the

truth of things.

 

Ajna Chakra: this is the sixth centre. The quality of this centre is

a great potential of human beings. It is the ability to see things in

their wholeness. This chakra shines with light of Cosmic

Consciousness and reveals the universe in its unified wholeness of

being.

 

Sahasrara Chakra: means the one thousand petalled lotus. When the

energy moves to the seventh centre the adept becomes a radiant lotus.

This lotus is Nirvana. This is the highest centre of consciousness; *

the crowning fulfillment of the mystic realization of which humans*

are potentially capable. All the supernormal powers pertain to this

centre.

 

The lowest centre is Muladhara, from where life of the body and

senses is born. With the seventh center, Sahasrara, life is born,

life of the eternal not of the body, not of the senses. This is the

Tantra physiology, and not the physiology found in medical books. It

is a map to make things understandable for the average person.

 

 

 

Centrality of Kundalini in Whitman's "Song of Myself"

 

Whitman's tantric vision in "Song of Myself" is the subject of my

talk this afternoon. In particular I shall try to identify the seven

chakras in his poetry. The poet begins his poem by describing

one "transparent summer morning" when he was leaning and " observing

a spear of summer grass." He speaks of a certain physical sensation

followed by a swift and revolutionary transformation of the psyche.

The world and the human scene appeared in a new light.

 

With this realization he becomes aware of "the peace and knowledge

that pass all the argument of the earth" and deeper significance of

life. This was not a passing fancy or a poetic mood for Whitman, but

a permanent transformation. It was an expansion of consciousness.

Something happened that touched the psychic source of his life when

suddenly he was engulfed in silent-ocean of pure consciousness. At

that moment a poet is born and there came to him a feeling of union

or identity with super-consciousness. A sense of ineffable joy

leading to the conviction that the seer has been released from the

limitation of space and time and has been granted a vision into the

nature of truth. The poet achieves transcendental illumination:

 

Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and knowledge that pass

all the arguments argument of the earth,

 

And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own, and I

 

know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own,

 

And that all the men ever born are also my brothers, and the women my

sisters and lovers,

 

And that a kelson of creation is love.

 

When Whitman gets inspiration and insight, nature unfolds its secrets

to him and all doubts within him disappear. He clearly begins to

understand that the most essential condition or happiness and

fulfillment in human life is in balance, harmony and integration.

With this he becomes aware of a great power within him. It is the

moment when the Kundalini, the mysterious secret reservoir in the

human body is aroused and the poet achieves mystical experience of

higher consciousness that is rare and great.

 

Whitman's experience is similar to that described by Gopi Krishna:

 

Suddenly, with a roar like that of a waterfall, I felt a stream of

liquid light entering my brain through the spinal cord . . . . I felt

the point of consciousness that was myself growing wider, surrounded

by the waves of light." ( Higher Consciousness: The evolutionary

thrust of Kundalini ).

 

This experience occurs gradually as a result of yoga or other

spiritual practices, or, as in the case of Whitman, it may have come

spontaneously when he was entirely unprepared. It was an insight

arising from the actual condition of higher consciousness. At times

the immensities of consciousness and perception were too much for

mental and physical body that the poet gave expression to his

thoughts by writing marvelous vistas of life and human destiny that

opened his vision like a blaze of dazzling light. The resultant new

awareness and visions are supplemented with art.

 

Whitman's "Song of Myself" is the record of the activation of

Kundalini within his self. Kundalini begins her journey from

Muladhara chakra, the root centre of physical experience to Sahasrara

chakra, the centre of quintessential consciousness, where integration

of all polarities is experienced, and the paradoxical act of

transcendence is accomplished.

 

With the activation of Kundalini, a change takes place within Whitman

and he cannot stop pursuing his longing to know what is beyond. He

proceeds to find the experience of infinitude, his vast extension, or

concentrated intensfication into Allness. He carries this conquest to

its end, and realizes that the energies within him like fire, are

urging him forward:

 

Urge and urge and urge,

 

Always the procreant urge of the world,

 

Out of the dimness opposite equals advance, always substance and

increase,

 

always sex,

 

Always a knit of identity, always distinction, always a breed of life.

 

Whitman wanted to be the "one complete lover: of the known universe,"

i.e., of the natural order of existence, and out of his love for the

physical world he could intuit the spiritual world which gives life

and existence to the physical. This love and intuition enables him to

acquire the wisdom which defies adequate translation into words, but

in passage after passage Whitman reveals his conviction that in that

eternal system of creation, each part, regardless of how seemingly

trivial, is equally important and immortal. The whole world is

revealed to the poet when this realization comes to him. The barrier

between matter and energy breaks down for the poet, and he sees even

a grain of sand and a blade of grass as vibrating with energy.

 

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the

stars,

 

And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg

 

of wren,

 

And the tree-toad is a chef-d'oeuvre for the highest,

 

And the running blackberry would adorn the parlours of heaven.

 

Whitman recognizes the essential unity of matter and body, which find

no opposition between the body and soul

 

I am the poet of the body and I am the poet of the soul.

 

I have said that the soul is not more than the body,

 

And I have said that body is not more than the soul,

 

And nothing, not God, is greater to one's self is.

 

On the contrary, the body, its organs and the mind, are the very

means of gaining experience of the soul. Whitman seeks the unfolding

of the powers within by an act of self-realization. He does not look

upon the world as an illusion or maya, but as a kind of experience,

but accepts and strives to reach yet another level of experience.

Whitman does not reject the normal level of experience, but accepts

and strives to reach yet another level of experience where reality

attains richness. By accepting everything as the gift of A supreme

being, the poet is freed from all the dualities and tensions of body

and soul, of matter and spirit, "Clear and sweet is my soul, clear

and sweet is all that is not my soul." He showed accord with

existence and gave approval to everything. He felt an ineffable sense

of fruition and fullness, he is ". . . satisfied--I see, dance,

laugh, sing" and his poems express an exalted vision of a tantric

sadhaka: he enters into the last phase of spiritual triumph and

arrives at the stage of infinity which the seers sought. By

subjecting everything emotional, physical, sexual, spiritual to the

deepest centres of the lowest self, he attains maximum consciousness

in the higher self.

 

Whitman conquers everything from the lowest to the highest centres.

His

 

.. . .feet strike an apex of the spices and of the stairs,

 

On every step bunches of ages, and larger bunches between the steps,

 

All duly travel'd, and still I mount and mount

 

Each psychic center plays a vital role in Whitman's life.

 

Muladhara Chakra

 

The lowest chakra plays an integral part in strengthening Whitman's

self-image. His experiences of this chakra are many. Sometimes he is

in his normal mode of seeking mere pleasures of the world, and feels

something rising with a tingling sensation from head to foot. At this

level he remains content, experiencing no desires to change or expand

into any other state. At this center the poet realizes the immense

potentiality of sex energy, and, through intuition, transforms the

energy of sex and frees it to the plane of cosmic awareness. He sees

sex as divine in itself, and as a source of vital energy capable of

acting with tremendous force on a psychophysical state which in turn

reacts on a higher cosmic plane. Just as in a genuine mystical

experience, there is inexpressible transformation of personality.

Precision of the intellect and the accuracy of sensual images is

never blurred or distorted but the perception is heightened and

everything becomes clear and brilliant, and harmonious.

 

Whitman is aware of the fact that the small pleasures derived from

sex are not actually the pleasures of sex but a vibration in the pool

of vital energy. This vibration is: "The smoke of my breath,/ Echoes,

ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, crotch and vine,/ My respiration

and inspiration, the passing of blood and air through my lungs." The

activation of this centre makes Whitman renounce nothing but indulge

and enjoy and celebrate existence. The existence goes on celebrating

and there is great joy and rejoicing in Whitman's heart. This

experience makes his body light and he possesses inexhaustable

energy. He gets divine intoxication, and develops a power of oration,

and in exhilaration he begins to compose sublime hymns and poetry

involuntarily. With the arousal of this energy, the poet is a totally

new and transformed individual. The poet's state of consciousness

results in immediate knowledge.

 

Whitman feels energy within him, lying low at the life center, rising

upward. Rapturous and supersensual vision appears before Whitman's

mental eye; new worlds with indescribable wonders and charms unfold

before his eyes. This energy is like an electric current and a

flaming force, and at the same time it is cool like the morning

breeze. This energy also accompanied by a tactile sensation of cold.

As his body is exposed to heat and cold, he admires the flesh:

 

If I worships one thing more than another it shall be the spread of

my

 

own body, or any part,

 

Translucent mould of me it shall be you!

 

Shaded ledges and rests it shall be you!

 

Firm masculine colter it shall be you!

 

Whatever goes to the tilth of me it shall be you!

 

You my rich blood! your milky stream pale strippings of my life!

Breasts that pressed against other breasts it shall be you!

 

My brain it shall be your occult convolution!

 

Root of wash'd sweet-flag! timorous pond-snipe! nest of guarded'd

tussled hay of head, beard, it shall be you!

 

Trickling sap of maple, fiber of manly wheat. it shall be you! Sun so

generous it shall be you!

 

Vapors lighting and shading my face it shall be!

 

You sweaty brooks and dew it shall be you!

 

Winds whose soft-tickling genitals rub against it shall be you! Broad

muscular fields, branches of live oak, loving lounger in my

 

winding paths, it shall be you!

 

Hands I have taken, face I have kiss'd, mortal I have ever

 

touch'd it shall be you!