KUNDALINI TANTRA Swami Satyananda Saraswati CONTENTS Introduction to Kundalini Tantra Section I - KUNDALINI 1. Ye Man, Tame the Kundalini 2. What is Kundalini? 3. Kundalini Physiology 4. Kundalini and the Brain 5. Methods of Awakening 6. Preparing for the Awakening 7. Diet for Kundalini Awakening 8. Risks and Precautions 9. Kundalini and Madness 10. Four Forms of Awakening 11. The Descent of Kundalini 12. The Experiences of Awakening 13. The Path of Kriya Yoga 14. Vama Marga and Kundalini Awakening Section 2 - THE CHAKRAS 1. Introduction to the Chakras 2. Evolution through the Chakras 3. Ajna Chakra 4. Mooladhara Chakra 5. Swadhisthana Chakra 6. Manipura Chakra 7. Anahata Chakra 8. Vishuddhi Chakra 9. Bindu Visarga 10. Sahasrara and Samadhi Section 3 - KUNDALINI YOGA PRACTICE Preliminary techniques for individual chakras and kshetram and the advanced techniques of kriya yoga Introduction 1. Rules and Preparations 2. Posture 3. Chakra Sadhana Course 4. Practices for Ajna Chakra 5. Practices for Mooladhara Chakra 6. Practices for Swadhisthana Chakra 7. Practices for Manipura Chakra 8. Practices for Anahata Chakra 9. Practices for Vishuddhi Chakra 10. Practices for Bindu Visarga 11. Practices for Integrated Chakra Awareness 12. Your Sadhana Program 13. Kundalini Kriyas of Kriya Yoga 14. The Kriya Yoga Practices Section 4 - KUNDALINI RESEARCH Compiled by: Swami Shankardevananda Saraswati MB, BS (Syd) 1. Introduction 2. Kundalini, Fact not Fiction 3. Defining the Nadis 4. Controlling the Nadis and the Brain 5. Evidence for the Existance of Nadis 6. Neurophysiology of the Chakras 7. Evidence for the Existence of Chakras 8. The Cosmic Trigger 9. Cross-Cultural Evidence 10. Analysis of the Chakras from a Psychophysiological Viewpoint Section 5 - APPENDIX Chakra Charts Index of Practices Glossary INTRODUCTION TO KUNDALINI TANTRA I have been travelling the world for the last three decades in order to pass on the message of yoga, and I find that yoga has influenced the course of human thinking tremendously. Initially of course, there was some doubt about it as many people thought that yoga was a type of religion, witchcraft or mysticism. This particularly happened because man believed matter was the ultimate point in the evolution of nature. The materialistic world did not understand yoga for some time, but as the men of science dived deep into the mysteries of matter, they came to understand and realize that matter was not the ultimate in the evolution of nature. If that is so for one form of matter, it applies to every form of matter. This external experience, the perception you have through your senses, is a product of matter. Even your thoughts, feelings, emotions and cognitions are products of matter. Therefore, they cannot be absolute and final. This means there must be another realm of experience. And if there is another realm of experience, it must be possible to transcend the present limitations of the mind. The mind is also matter; it is definitely not spirit. So the mind can also be transformed and made to evolve. People have begun to realize and experience this in the last few decades. And in my opinion, this marks the end of one era and the beginning of another. For those who have knowledge of science and the nature of matter, it is not difficult to understand exactly what inner experience is. An inner experience is the manifestation of a deeper level of oneself. Dream, of course, is an experience. Your dreams may be schizophrenic but that is an expression of your own self. Thought is also a concept or expression of your own self. A piece of music is an expression of yourself, whether you compose it or just admire it. A painting or sculpture is a concept of yourself whether you create it or just admire it. That means the external world is a manifestation of your inner experience. And you can improve this experience to any extent. You can also bring about deterioration of this experience. When everything is hopeless outside, that is your experience of yourself, and if everything is beautiful outside, that is also your experience of yourself. In the last few decades, yoga has helped millions of people improve their concepts of themselves. Yoga realizes that man is not only the mind, he is body as well. Therefore man does not experience happiness only through the mind. The body is also real and it is a part of his personality. Just by improving the condition of the body however, man will not necessarily enable his mind to experience happiness either. This is because he is not only the body and mind, he is emotion and desire as well. He is something beyond the mind or psyche. Therefore, yoga has been designed in such a way that it can complete the process of evolution of the personality in every possible direction. That is why yoga has so many branches - hatha yoga, karma yoga, bhakti yoga, raja yoga, gyana yoga, kundalini yoga, and so on. A combined, integrated practice of yoga in one's life will definitely ensure a better quality of experience within you and without. Every seeker and practitioner on the path of yoga must remember that the various paths of yoga are to improve the quality of head, heart and hand. However, yoga does not end with the development of the personality. One level of the personality is dependent on this mind, this body and these emotions, but there is another deeper part of the personality which you have to develop with another kind of mind and emotion. This requires a special process, and that process is known as kundalini yoga. Objective experience not the ultimate Kundalini yoga is a part of the tantric tradition. Even though you may have already been introduced to yoga, it is necessary to know something about tantra also. Since ancient times, the wise men have realized that mind can be expanded and that experiences do not necessarily depend on an object. This means that if somebody is playing music, I can hear it, and if somebody has painted a picture, I can see it, but I can also see if there is no picture, and I can hear if there is no music. This is also a quality of man's personality which has been ignored in the last 150 to 200 years. Tantra says that the range of mental experience can be broadened. With the help of the senses, your mind can have an experience based on an object. There can be an experience within the framework of time, space and object, but there can also be an experience beyond the framework of time, space and object. The second form of experience can happen when the present mind expands beyond its given definitions and borders, and when this experience occurs, energy is released from yourself. For hundreds of years, people have been talking about an experience called nirvana, moksha, emancipation, self-realization, salvation or liberation, without understanding it properly. Yogis call this experience samadhi. Although many people think that in samadhi or nirvana everything is completely finished, it is definitely not a process of quitting the world. Nothing finishes, only one level of experience ends, but then another begins. Since the dawn of creation, the tantrics and yogis have realized that in this physical body there is a potential force. It is not psychological, philosophical or transcendental; it is a dynamic potential force in the material body, and it is called kundalini. This kundalini is the greatest discovery of tantra and yoga. Scientists have begun to look into this, and a summary of some of the latest scientific experiments is included in this book. We can see from this research that science is not actually going to discover anything new in this field. It is only rediscovering and substantiating what yogis discovered many, many centuries ago. A universal event The seat of kundalini is a small gland at the base of the spinal cord. With the evolution of the natural forces in man, this gland has now come to a point where man can explode it. Quite a number of people have awakened this supernatural force and they have been called rishis, prophets, yogis, siddhas and various other names according to the time, tradition and culture. In India the entire cultural setup was once organized to facilitate this explosion, but today things are a little different because materialism is a very powerful force, and for the moment, it has even stupefied the Indian minds. For the awakening of kundalini, not only are the practices of yoga required. If this awakening is to become a universal event, then the entire social structure has to be reorganized and millions of people all over the world have to be told the purpose of their existence. The whole life from the time of conception to the moment when you leave the body, each and every thing has to be reoriented. You will see in this book how even the instinctive and emotional interaction between man and woman must be revised and refined, so that it can lead us not away from, but towards, this ultimate awakening. This reorientation has to be undertaken with the purpose of expanding the mind and opening new doors of experience. Today we are living in a world where everyone is more or less satisfied. Man has all the comforts and everything he needs and does not need. There will come a time, however, when man will be prepared to throw off these comforts. Luxury and comfort weaken the will and keep man under constant hypnosis. Alcohol and drugs are not as dangerous as man's total slavery to luxury and comfort.