CHAKRAS
Chakras are psychic centres that lie along the axis of the spine as consciousness potentials. The chakras are not materially real and are to be understood as situated, not in the gross body, but in the subtle or etheric body. Repositories of psychic energies, they govern the whole condition of being. They are usually represented as lotuses.
When kundalini is struck, she awakens, uncoils and begin to rise upwards like a fiery serpent, breaking upon each chakra as she ascends, until the Shakti merges with Shiva in sahasrara chakra.
As kundalini reaches each chakra, that lotus opens and lift its flower; and as soon as she leaves for a higher chakra, the lotus closes its petals and hangs down, symbolizing the activation of the energies of the chakra and their assimilation to kundalini.
The increasing number of lotus petals, in ascending order, may be taken to indicate the rising energy or vibration-frequencies of the respective chakras, each functioning as a transformer of energies from one potency to another.
Each of the chakras, according to the Tantras, corresponds to one of the elements of which the known world is compounded. Muladhara represents solidity; Svadhisthana, liquidity; Manipura, the gaseous; Anahata, the aerial; Vishuddha, the etheric, or space. One can see the whole process as a progressive transformation of the elements, with an increase of volatility.
This ascent through the chakras can be viewed as an upward journey through the self which refines and subtilizes the energy that is the kundalini, until at the sixth chakra, the Ajna, centre of command, a qualitative change has taken place.
Kundalini-THE FORCE
Realise Your Inner Potential is about spiritual development, which means that, ultimately, it is about kundalini.
Kundalini is the primordial life force within all of us. In Indian teachings it is depicted as a coiled-up snake, which rears up when roused.
It resides at the base of the spine, and the process of spiritual development is one in which kundalini is gradually stimulated, through spiritual practice, to travel up the spine. When it does so, it stimulates higher states of consciousness. The ultimate state of consciousness, achieved only when kundalini has completed its journey to the psychic centre, or chakra above the top of the head, is one of Union with God - or to use the Sanskrit term, Samadhi.
Kundalini activity is continuous - we would not be alive without it - but significant rises of kundalini are powerful, life-changing experiences and are unmistakable. Through them we start to move into new exciting areas of life and spiritual awareness, we learn far more about ourselves and the world around us than we ever dreamed possible, and we also move into uncharted waters. Uncharted by us that is - there are many who have sailed there before.
The journey of kundalini up the spine is the main journey of life.
All spiritual practice - meditation, mantra, prayer, healing, pranayama, it does not matter - stimulates kundalini, and the more intensity goes into it, the bigger the effect must be. The result is a natural balanced development, as long these things are undertaken in the context of a sensible, balanced lifestyle. It would be very unwise, for instance, to practise them in a lifestyle that also included psychoactive drugs.
There are, however, methods, such as Kundalini Yoga, which use techniques designed to stimulate the rise of kundalini in a very powerful and premeditated way. They differ from the techniques above in that stimulating kundalini is their primary objective. Such disciplines are complex and can be dangerous unless performed under the direct supervision of a Master of the art. Dr. King, who was a Master of Kundalini Yoga, strongly advised against indiscriminate practice of it and stated quite definitely that it has the potential to go very badly wrong.
In the book Realise Your Inner Potential, he gave a series of exercises known as the Kundalini Breathing Exercises, which are also contained in the DVD. These practices set out to deliberately stimulate kundalini to rise, but they are quite safe, as long as they are taken seriously and practiced in the context of a sensible, balanced, spiritually orientated lifestyle.
Realise Your Inner Potential is more than just a series of practices - it is guide for spiritual living. As such, if you follow what Realise Your Inner Potential teaches, you will be raising kundalini in the surest and most balanced way possible - at a pace that is set by you, and only you. The experiences, when they come, will have been worth all the effort you have put in.
-G.YASHWANTH..........
