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In this exclusive interview, Himalayan Yogi and founder of Kevala Foundation, Dr Pradeep Ullal unravels the mysteries surrounding kundalini and he explains how you can unleash and harness this inner energy for spiritual growth
What exactly is kundalini?
Kundalini is the life force energy that resides in every one of us. Many describe this innate force as the divine serpent that is lying in a coiled state at the base of our spine. It is this primordial kinetic force that enables our subtle body (aka prana) within us to unite with its source. In the tantric texts, kundalini is regarded as the shakti, the goddess energy that is deeply seeking its magnetic power head shiva. When the kundalini shakti is aroused it dances in divine ecstasy and rises to unite with shiva at the top of our crown (sahasrana) chakra. When awakened, this cosmic force pierces through all of your chakras.
A kundalini awakening is said to be an overwhelming cataclysmic experience. What are the different ways in which this cosmic energy can be aroused?
There are a few ways to ignite this inner energy including the following:
Kundalini Yoga: The combination of kundalini fire breath, physical movements, chanting mantras, bandhas (locks) and mudras (stretching of nadis or energy channels) and kriyas (cleansing techniques) can provoke an awakening.
Kundalini Meditation: The intensity of concentration during meditation and various levels of samadhi (absorbed state of super consciousness) plus the breathing techniques are also ways of arousing your inner energy.
Unconditional Love: Love is the key to an awakening. If we can direct intense, unconditional love to the universe, there will be a powerful and natural shift within. This will eventually lead to an awakening. Bhakti Marga is the path of love and devotion that invokes the power of divine grace. When we experience compassion for fellow beings and are ready to serve on the path of awareness, the force within becomes conducive for an awakening.
Tantric Practices: Most people fail to understand tantra; however it is one the most powerful and quickest ways to awaken the kundalini. Tantra focuses upon the power of purification through mantra sadhana, sacred fire ceremonies, ritual practice and so on. Tantric practices can include sexual (semen and vaginal fluids) and vital energy (ojas) being redirected through the vajrini nadi to the neuron centre of the brain (sahasrara chakra) through advanced techniques of vajroli and sahajoli mudra.
Kundalini Shaktipat: An experienced awakened being can transfer energy to a seeker via shaktipat. This energy transfer which is a gift of consciousness (called grace or kripa) may come in a single, large burst, although more often it comes in smaller experiences along the way.
You are one of the few Himalayan yogis able to transmit kundalini shakipat. How can you tell if someone is ready to receive such powerful transmissions?
Only a few pure beings on this plane are capable of relaying shaktipat. A pure experience of shaktipat happens when grace descends and the aspirant is in deep receptivity. It happens when the timing is right and it is quite a rare event in the journey of ascension. I know it intuitively when an aspirant is ready. There are many indications. However at times, students must overcome the pull of maya (meaning ‘illusionary world’ in Sanskrit) and this often presents itself as drama and resistances.
Why does this life force energy lie latent in many of us throughout our lifetimes?
There is much deeper insight to this. A healthy newborn baby is 5000 Hz in frequency. The fontanel (the soft spot on the crown of a baby’s head) is open and there is a divine fragrance emanating from it. A newborn is magnetic, primarily because past emotions and drama have not affected the engraved memory pattern in the brain as yet. I have had the privilege of holding many just born babies. And I realised that there was immense flow of prana currents across the body. Till the age of four, babies brain are naturally tuned to operate in ‘delta’ brain waves. There is a causeless joy, stillness and silence, which is an active state of kundalini. However, owing to our evolutionary design and cosmic play of maya, we often fall into lower frequencies of greed, fear, pain, suffering, and negative emotions. We quickly shift from our natural ‘inward’ and ‘upward’ prana flow to ‘outward’ and ‘downward’ pull of evolution. We seek for happiness externally and many of us are driven by desire for material possession and short-term pleasure. This is part of a common trajectory of ignorance of human existence in this planet.
So, are we mostly products of our upbringing and karmic debts?
Our education, culture, lifestyle and religious belief systems have a deep impact upon us. Often we are programmed by political and religious leaders who use subtle (and sometimes less subtle) ways of controlling the general public; it isn’t in their interests for people to awaken their latent inner power of kundalini. More awakened beings means that our current model of a fear based consumerist society will be challenged. Currently, fear based thinking manages to enslave people through a pattern of unconscious ignorance. A vast majority of us are victims of this intense programming of limitations. The good news is that our suffering along the way is actually a blossoming process in disguise which then enables us to potentially evolve and understand the bigger cosmic picture at play.
