Maya and Kundalini--Spiritual Quests

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam,

After reading all these quasi negative posts about Joseph Campbell and

the fruitless discussion of Maya and Kundalini and universalism, I

thought I may as well add my two cents worth.

 

Campbell's " Hero with a Thousand Faces " was required reading for a Psych

course I took at UCLA in 1970, but it was right in line with my personal

life-long spiritual quest. Having first learned techniques (by no name)

to experience the divine from an angelic presence at the age of eleven,

I knew the universe held vastly more love and sweetness than my Catholic

upbringing had delivered.

 

The following is an excerpt from my memoirs. It is only a summary of the

many pages of notes I made in a journal, so profoundly did Campbell and

other's words resonate with my soul:

 

" I read 'Hero with a Thousand Faces,' by Joseph Campbell and recognized

my self on the path to liberation—the Destiny of Everyman, the trials

and victories of initiation, the return and integration with society. I

learned of Tao, the way of nature and cosmic order; the Absolute made

manifest—Ying and Yang; of Truth.

 

Over Christmas vacation I read 'From the Diaries of Franz Kafka,'

quoting, 'It is entirely conceivable that life’s splendor forever lies

in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view,

deep down, invisible, far off. It is there though, not hostile, not

reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right

name, it will come. This is the essence of magic, which does not create,

but summons.'

 

His message felt both frustratingly mysterious and true. Franz Kafka

does not say what the right name is. I deeply believed that the right

technique would dispel this mystery.

 

I followed Kafka with Hesse’s 'Journey to the East,' and concluded,

 

I now better understand my despair, my blindness and the ever greater

challenges I must admit to and attempt to meet…. Forever it seems

weighed down and tiring. Never knowing—blind or no? Despairing even and

ever in my despair…

 

And all this dispelled by a smile. "

 

 

Those readings set up a craving in me that only the simplicity of divine

experience could fulfill. Three weeks later, in January of 1971, I

attended my first Kundalini Yoga class in UCLA's Student Union building.

There, to my delight, we practiced the same yoga " challenges " I had

learned as a child.

 

Loving Blessings,

Guruprem Kaur

 

Memoirs of a Yogini

SGGS--Path of Life to Light