I had to shake my head in appreciation and agreement, it was so true.
“To make Kundalini rise from the tip of the spine you must create enough pressure to force Her out of the Muladhara Chakra. The upward motion will continue only so long as the pressure remains; without it Kundalini drops back down to the bottom, due to gravity. Because humans stand erect, grav ity acts only on the tip of the spinal cord, not on the whole thing as it does in other animals, whose spines are horizontal or nearly so. This is one rea son why it is easier to awaken Kundalini in a human than in an animal."
I wanted to ask how one goes about awakening Kundalini in an animal, but he wouldn’t let me get a word in
“You might wonder how Kundalini, an ethereal force traveling in ethereal nerves, can be affected by gravity. Well, gravity must also have an ethereal form, mustn’t it? All the Five Great Elements have ethereal forms, and grav ity is mainly due to the Earth Element. Ethereal gravity is in fact more diffi cult to overcome than physical gravity. Besides that, as long as Kundalini is asleep She is completely self-identified with the body, which includes the nervous system, so the effect of physical gravity on the nervous system will disturb any attempt to pry Her away from physical consciousness.
“You will never be able to raise Kundalini until you can control the move ments of the prana in your body. Kundalini can only leave the Muladhara Chakra when Prana, which ordinarily moves upwards, is made to move downwards and Apana, which usually moves downwards, is made to move upwards. Only when Prana and Apana meet and their ‘mouths’ touch can Kundalini’s upward motion begin.
“And just because you begin to feel some upward movement from the Muladhara does not mean that that chakra has been fully opened! When Kundalini leaves the Muladhara Chakra for good, She throws off all connec tion with the Earth Element, all the accretions of millions and millions of births. These pass through your consciousness on their way out, and you learn all about the Earth Element. Actually, this is just a review of everything you have learned about Earth in all your previous lives. When you gain full knowledge of the Earth Element you can be sure that the Muladhara has become fully activated, not before. When you finally relinquish the Earth Element you must also let go of acquisitiveness and greed, the emotions which are based there. Earth is the only solid element, the only thing you can ‘hold on to.’ When you give up needing to hold on to anything you can progress.
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KUNDALINI
“After the Muladhara Chakra comes the Svadhishthana, the seat of the Water Element and of procreation. When Kundalini leaves the Svadhish thana for good the sadhaka (anyone who practices sadhana) learns every thing about the Water Element. In each chakra you obtain full knowledge of the Element it represents, as all the accretions of past experiences are dredged up from your causal body. You must conquer lust, the instinctual drive to procreate, before you can move beyond the Svadhishthana.
“From the Svadhishthana Chakra, Kundalini moves up to the Manipura Chakra, the seat of the Fire Element, where metabolism takes place. The lowest three chakras are meant for the mundane world, physical existence. When asked about their future prospects Indians frequently say that it all depends on what is written in their fate, pointing to their foreheads where fate is supposedly written. But fate is not written on the forehead. Fate is simply the sum of all your past karmas, good and bad, and it is written in your three lowest chakras. Rnanubandhana is strongest here, because these chakras pertain to the Earth, Water, and Fire Elements, which possess phys ical form. Rnanubandhana is not so strong with Air and Ether, which have no form.
“The Manipura Chakra is really crucial. There you learn the difference between Jathara Agni and Bhuta Agni. Whenever Bhuta Agni is strong Jathara Agni must be weak, and vice versa. You only have a certain amount of fire in your system, and you have to choose how it will be used. To progress at sadhana a sadhaka must progressively convert Jathara Agni into Bhuta Agni.
“It is very nice for you to learn new things,” he said, looking pointedly at me, “but you must be in a position to digest what you learn. If you are not able to do so you will vomit back all the knowledge, which is shakti, and your last condition will be much worse than your first. When you try to take in too much energy before your Bhuta Agni becomes strong, much of that undigested energy gets converted into anger, the emotion that is character istic of the Fire Element.
“The main reason for this indigestion is the element of doubt. Until your doubts are removed you will ask questions like, ‘Why should it be like this instead of that?’ whenever I tell you anything. Just experience it and you’ll know about it; there’s no other way. Without personal experience there just can’t be firm understanding. This is another reason why I never teach any one. How can I teach? People spend all their time trying to understand by asking questions, and most of them don’t even know which questions to
ask!”
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I was on the point of asking a question, so I refrained. “Why doesn’t anyone ask about Granthi Bhedana, the Piercing of the Knots which obstruct the free movement of Kundalini in the nadis? There are three principal knots: the Brahma Granthi, the Rudra Granthi and the Vishnu Granthi. Kundalini cannot be completely awakened until She pierces these knots.”
“Where are they?” “Ah, now you ask!” He laughed. “We’ll talk about it sometimes."
I suspected as much. “Some people blame almost all physical and mental diseases on ‘blocked chakras,^" I continued, “Does that have anything to do with these knots?“
“It does, but not in the way they think. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. The chakras exist in the subtle body, and their connection to the physical body is very subtle. It is true that both the physical and subtle plex uses may become blocked, but in most people the Kundalini is fast asleep in the Muladhara Chakra, and their chakras are absolutely closed and play no part in their day-to-day lives. It is because everyone’s chakras are blocked that Kundalini Yoga is so necessary. As long as you are full of attachments to life your consciousness will never be able to get close enough to any chakra even to smell its fragrance, much less experience it.
“But in a way what these people say is true: if you try to take on too much shakti before removing these knots, the shakti will get blocked along the way, and then either your nervous system will overload and collapse, or all the energy will be ‘vomited out’ into your system and you will go berserk. Shakti magnifies and expands everything, including especially attachments. You need good guidance at every step of the way or down you will go, dive bombing back into the samsara.
“Above the Manipura Chakra is the Anahata Chakra, the first of the upper three chakras which are meant only for spiritual activities, like sacrifice. The Vedas enjoin the performance of sacrifice, and today many priests loot in the name of the Vedas, performing sacrifices without knowing why, just to make money. The Sanskrit word for sacrifice is yajna, which is a word of two sylla bles: ya and jna. Jna of course stands for spiritual wisdom (jnana); ‘yam’ is one of the chief Bija Mantras for the Anahata Chakra. This suggests that a yajna involves ethereal worlds, which is very true. In fact, one of the main purposes of a yajna is to feed and satisfy various ethereal beings with the fra grance of the smoke from the various burnt offerings. It also suggests that Bhuta Agni rather than the Jathara Agni is to be used in a yajna, and that only a person whose Bhuta Agni is truly enkindled can properly perform a yajna.
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KUNDALINI
“When you move into the Anahata Chakra, the chakra of the Air Element, you learn all about ethereal beings, the ‘spirits of the air’ which move about just like the wind does. Anahata means ‘unstruck’; at the Anahata Chakra you begin to hear the Anahata Nada, the ‘sound which does not arise by striking.’ Associated with the Anahata Chakra, on the right side of the chest, there is a little organ referred to by its size: ’the thumb-sized person.’ It is most useful; it acts as a universal translator. You can understand any lan guage with its help because it provides a simultaneous translation into your own mother tongue. Language is sound, and sound moves in air; when you learn all about Air, you develop a comprehension which is good for all lan guages.
“From the Anahata Chakra the Kundalini moves into the Vishuddha Chakra. Vishuddha means ’especially pure,’ and here you gain knowledge of the Ether Element, the subtlest and so purest of the Five Great Elements. You also go beyond the Six Tastes, since taste is only a permutation of the Five Elements in food. All that remains to obscure the Kundalini now are the Three Gunas. When Kundalini is in the Vishuddha Chakra your exhala tion will move only two fingerbreadths beyond your nostrils, which indi cates that your mind has become very calm. You’ve noticed, I presume, that in times of great anger, at the moment of orgasm, and in other intensely emotional situations your breathing becomes faster and more forceful, and your mind becomes more chaotic?”
I thought for a moment, and then said yes.
“Such breathing is useless for sadhana, for which you must have a condi tioned mind. Yogis practice pranayama because they know that control of the breath causes control of the mind. The opposite is also true: whatever controls the mind controls the breathing.
“When your mind is well-conditioned, Kundalini will move from the Vishuddha Chakra into the Ajna Chakra, at the third eye.’ Its lotus has only two petals, indicating only two Bija Mantras: one for Shakti and the other for Shiva. Ajna means ‘command.’ Here ‘ajna’ stands for ‘guru ajna, ‘instructions from the guru.’ Shiva is the world’s guru, and at the Ajna Chakra He can be clearly perceived.
“Do you know how the tribe of immortal beings known as Naths address the Kundalini Shakti? ‘Whore!’ Yes, ‘Whore!’ They say, ‘So, strumpet, You have been playing about with others! Now you come to me. You will never be allowed to flirt again!’ They mean that their individual shakti, which has been busy self-identifying with all sorts of external sensory objects under the delusion that She is the body, must be forcibly brought up into the Ajna
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AGHORA II: Kundalini
Chakra where She will have only one to self-identify with: Her Grand Con sort, Lord Shiva.
“At the Ajna Chakra the breathing is almost completely stopped, because here the Shunya state (emptiness, nothingness) begins. In the Shunya state all names and forms become extinct, and all you are aware of is your own individuality; otherwise only the Void remains. Everything in the universe is contained in the Shunya state, in unmanifested form; you can no longer perceive it. Although people call the Shunya state the Void, it is not empty; it is full.
“As long as Kundalini is still concentrated in the lower chakras, even the Vishuddha, there is still danger of self-identification with the body. Once Kundalini rises above the Vishuddha Chakra there is no possibility of any mundane thought because there is no longer any manubandhana, any bondage of karmic debt. How can there be? You have gone beyond the Five Elements which compose the physical universe; no physical tie remains.
“When Kundalini moves from the Ajna into the Sahasrara the final shreds of identity are lost and the sadhaka merges completely with the Universal Soul. In the Ajna Chakra there is still duality–the Ardhanarishvara or Sadashiva form, Shiva and Shakti united in one bodybut in the Sahasrara they merge completely. All differentiation is lost, and the result is Nirvikalpa Samadhi, the samadhi (state of profound one-pointed consciousness) in which nothing is perceived except the Universal Soul. All determination and indecision drop away, all fluctuations of the mind disappear. You are fin ished! Gone to the land of no retum!”