Kundalini Splendor

Today, I discovered a valuable website at http://www.lovebliss.eu/Kundalini.htm

This site is from Jan Esmann, who is from Copenhagen and who himself experienced self-realization through Kundalini awakening at an early age. Although I do not necessarily agree with every single observation in the excerpt below, the writings he offers present much food for thought, and help us to understand more fully the workings of Kundalini--which he describes as "Like having sex with God," and indeed, this comes close to how the experience can at times feel.

Kundalini

Kundalini is love-bliss. Without kundalini, there will be no love-bliss in your life. It is that simple. There may be much love and bliss in a common sense, but the divine love-bliss will never be yours until kundalini reaches the brain.

In every human being there is a divine energy called Kundalini. It lies coiled up in the root chakra just above the perineum. Kundalini is in three states: the common dormant state, the aroused state and the rare awakened state. When kundalini is dormant, one's spiritual understanding is restricted, and everything is perceived and interpreted according to a mundane and selfish perspective. When kundalini is aroused, it gives a sudden temporary state of spiritual insight and spiritual energy, but it is not stable. Only the awakened kundalini gives stable transformations of consciousness.

Kundalini is the energy (Shakti) of the Self in a restricted form. As the awakened kundalini unfolds, restrictions fall off and spiritual insight and freedom arises.


The chakras and ascent of Kundalini from Shivananda's book "Kundaliniyoga"

"Kundalini and Self-realization

In terms of kundalini, ignorance of the Self is characterized by kundalini being stuck in the lowest chakra, slightly above the perineum. However, you can apparently reach Self-realization without awakening kundalini; this state is nothingness-being, or Pure Being, and it has no love-bliss, it is usually described as being void, or nothing. It is not quicker to reach Self-realization without Shakti, as one might assume, on the contrary it is a faster path to surrender to both Pure Being as well as Shakti and the enlightenment one reaches will be of a different kind than if one ignores Shakti.

The rising of kundalini

Kundalini needs to rise inside the spine, and this is its natural course. As it progresses upwards various experiences and states will emerge. Usually kundalini rises in a fraction of its total amount, like only a few percent at a time, but sometimes the entire energy leaves the lowest chakra and enters the spine. When this happens it feels exactly like a snake entering the spinal column through the gap between the lowest back vertebrae and the sacral bone. It enters not from the sacral bone, but from the front. Hence dormant kundalini is not located inside the spine or sacral bone, but rather just above the perineum. This "snake" is about half as thick as your little finger and about 12 cm's long. When it happens you will experience a state of bliss so intense nothing compares to it; it is like having sex with God.

Kundalini may partially or fully rise from the lowest chakra and become very active in the body, but if it does not reach the heart chakra, there will not be much spiritual benefit in this. It may even be a scary experience if you don't understand and respect, what is going on. There is in reality nothing to be scared about since the energy will by itself fall down and rest after a while if one just leaves it alone.

Divine love and love-bliss as kundalini rises

When kundalini reaches the heart chakra you will experience divine love, but it is not yet supreme love-bliss. In fact true love-bliss will only come when kundalini enters the brain and Shakti merges with Pure Being. If kundalini rises fully or partially to the throat chakra, or above, you will begin to experience blissful samadhi.

Some reject kundalini and love-bliss with respect to Pure Being and Self-realization, because they think kundalini is a kind of relative force and that love-bliss is a kind of emotion. But kundalini is Pure Shakti and Shakti is One with Pure Being. Pure Being and Shakti are not two sides of a coin, they are one and the same. One may reach Self-realization and only know Pure Being without the Shakti. But such a realization will sooner or later change to integrate Shakti also and as that happens, one will merge with love-bliss. Shakti is love-bliss. It is not that love-bliss is a sign or symptom of Shakti, Shakti and love-bliss are One. So the full enlightenment, not just realizing the Self as Pure Being, is a Oneness of Pure Being, Shakti and love-bliss. So while Self-realization is the common factor, there are kinds of enlightenment: The basic kind is Pure-Being-Nothingness without Shakti and love-bliss, the more advanced kind is Pure Being-Shakti-love-bliss. The first kind has no direct effect on other people, since it is all within the enlightened one, but the second kind comes with the gift of being able to pull others into Self-realization and awaken their kundalini, so they too will reach the highest soon. This gift is known as shaktipat."

(Now from Dorothy):
The site includes as well a fascinating account of Jan's own ongoing awakening through the years, and meditation exercises to awaken and enhance Kundalini.

I am always interested in those who describe Kundalini as a "snake" that rises up the spine. The writer above even gives the actual dimensions of the snake. My own awakening was quite different, and indeed, this form, though rare, is described in certain of the ancient texts. My energies first awakened in the root/second chakras and then shot almost instantaneously into the crown, which then opened to receive the divine energies from above. I find that each Kundalini opening is unique, and follows its own path. But all may lead( sooner or later) to love-bliss, which itself may be experienced in differing degrees of intensity and feeling.

This author,like many others, says that the energies must first reach the heart before reaching the brain, the center where ultimate bliss awakens. Again, my own experience is different from this. At the moment of awakening, the bliss-energies shot into the brain and the opening was indeed one of acute bliss, "like a thousand petals opening." It was some time thereafter that I experience the true opening of the heart, in an ecstasy that was "almost more than I could bear."

Today I felt some "love-bliss" during my practice, but it was quite mild in comparison to earlier times. It felt like soft light playing over my arms and face as I moved slowly before my Tongka of Buddha. I was actually "stroking my aura," that is to say, stroking my flesh from about 3 or 4 inches away. Was this experience one of Kundalini--or some other form of bliss, such as chi energy moving delicately through? Does it matter? Each experience is different, and each person experiences differently from others.

One thing I especially like about the excerpt above is its explanation of Self-Realization without Shakti (somatic bliss) and Self-Realization with bliss. The former is the state many enter when they feel total loss of self-awareness and become One with the ineffable. No bliss as a feeling state is involved, though the practitioner may describe the experience as "bliss consciousness." In the latter (feeling) state, the bliss itself is the realization of Oneness with Divinity.

Personally, I feel fortunate to be able to enter the love-bliss state in whatever form, for this seems to me to be the ultimate condition of the mortal striving to taste heaven.

(Image is from the cover of Ajit Mookerjee's invaluable book "Kundalini: The Arousal of the Inner Energy.")