KUNDALINI by Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati, Divine Life Society

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KUNDALINI

Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati, Divine Life Society

 

 

" The word Kundalini is a familiar one to all students of Yoga, as it

is well known as the power, in the form of a coiled serpent,

residing in Muladhara Chakra, the first of the seven Chakras, the

other six being Svadhishthana, Manipuraka, Anahata, Visuddha, Ajna

and Sahasrara, in order.

 

All Sadhanas in the form of Japa, meditation, Kirtan and prayer as

well as all development of virtues, and observance of austerities

like truth, non-violence and continence are at best calculated only

to awaken this serpent-power and make it to pass through all the

succeeding Chakras beginning from Svadhishthana to Sahasrara, the

latter otherwise called as the thousand-petalled lotus, the seat of

Sadasiva or the Parabrahman or the Absolute separated from whom the

Kundalini or the Shakti lies at the Muladhara, and to unite with

whom the Kundalini passes through all the Chakras, as explained

above, conferring liberation on the aspirant who assiduously

practises Yoga or the technique of uniting her with her Lord and

gets success also in his effort.

 

In worldly-minded people, given to enjoyment of sensual and sexual

pleasures, this Kundalini power is sleeping because of the absence

of any stimulus in the form of spiritual practices, as the power

generated through such practices alone awakens that serpent-power,

and not any other power derived through the possession of worldly

riches and affluence. When the aspirant seriously practises all the

disciplines as enjoined in the Shastras, and as instructed by the

preceptor, in whom the Kundalini would have already been awakened

and reached its abode or Sadasiva, acquiring which blessed

achievement alone a person becomes entitled to act as a Guru or

spiritual preceptor, guiding and helping others also to achieve the

same end, the veils or layers enmeshing Kundalini begin to be

cleared and finally are torn asunder and the serpent-power is pushed

or driven, as it were upwards.

 

Supersensual visions appear before the mental eye of the aspirant,

new worlds with indescribable wonders and charms unfold themselves

before the Yogi, planes after planes reveal their existence and

grandeur to the practitioner and the Yogi gets divine knowledge,

power and bliss, in increasing degrees, when Kundalini passes

through Chakra after Chakra, making them to bloom in all their glory

which before the touch of Kundalini, do not give out their powers,

emanating their divine light and fragrance and reveal the divine

secrets and phenomena, which lie concealed from the eyes of worldly-

minded people who would refuse to believe of their existence even.

 

When the Kundalini ascends one Chakra or Yogic centre, the Yogi also

ascends one step or rung upward in the Yogic ladder; one more page,

the next page, he reads in the divine book; the more the Kundalini

travels upwards, the Yogi also advances towards the goal or

spiritual perfection in relation to it. When the Kundalini reaches

the sixth centre or the Ajna Chakra, the Yogi gets the vision of

Personal God or Saguna Brahman, and when the serpent-power reaches

the last, the top centre, or Sahasrara Chakra, or the Thousand-

petalled lotus, the Yogi loses his individuality in the ocean of Sat-

Chit-Ananda or the Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute and becomes

one with the Lord or Supreme Soul. He is no longer an ordinary man,

not even a simple Yogi, but a fully illumined sage, having conquered

the eternal and unlimited divine kingdom, a hero having won the

battle against illusion, a Mukta or liberated one having crossed the

ocean of ignorance or the transmigratory existence, and a superman

having the authority and capacity to save the other struggling souls

of the relative world. Scriptures hail him most, in the maximum

possible glorifying way, and his achievement....

 

Man is a microcosm (Kshudra Brahmanda). Whatever exists in the outer

universe exists in him. All the Tattvas and worlds are within him

and so is the Supreme Siva-Sakti. "

 

Kundalini

Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati, Divine Life Society