Kundalini means a coil, ring, or dormant serpent-coiled energy located near the base of the spine. In Sanskrit, the word kundal means circular; it can be a ring or an ornament. In the yogic tradition, Kundalini, which means snake, symbolizes unmanifested or spiritual energy within your body. Kundalini is dormant, and this energy is innate in every human being, but one must try to uncoil it. So when you uncoil this giant energy, then you come in direct contact with this divine energy. When not flowing, this serpent or coiled energy is in revolving form near the mooldhara chakra. When it awakens, it finds its way through Sushumna Nadi and finds its way to the crown chakra. So, when you get to connect with this energy and activate it, this can lead to an eternal state of bliss.
Kundalini yoga is the practice of awakening that giant force within us and connecting with our higher self. The awakening of this kundalini energy up to the spine, the energy centres are called chakras. When one starts manifesting this energy, one can harness one's own spiritual energies, and through kundalini yoga, one can unite one's consciousness with divine consciousness. Regular pranayama, meditation, yoga asana, bandhas, mudra and mantra chanting do this awakening of chakras.
There are basically two types of kundalini yoga that traditional kundalini yoga and the other one is a yogi bhajan. Let's unravel both of these ones by one:
The traditional kundalini yoga is explained in Hatha Yoga Pradipika, which includes asana, breathing exercises or pranayama, mudra, bandhas and meditation more systematically. Ancient hatha yoga is not a series of stretching yoga postures. It is more about a practice that prepares your body for seated meditation and is very energetic. Hatha yoga poses are designed in such a way that they cleanse and revitalize your energy channels and centres. The first goal of kundalini yoga teacher training is to remove your old blockages. Practising hatha yoga is a crucial step in preparing your body both for meditation and energetically for kundalini yoga.
Yogi Bhajan was from Sikhism and he blended kundalini yoga and sikhism together. For this purpose he used keertan from Sikhism and yoga techniques from kundalini yoga. The techniques of kundalini yoga are called Kriya, which is a combination of intense breathing, body movements and awareness or meditation.
This style of yoga helps raise the practitioner’s consciousness and activate his inner energy which flows in form of ‘Prana’. Prana is present in every being, only it is different from person to person. This is because Prana is non-molecular and non-visible. It is the life force which is all around us in any living thing, including animals and plants. Mind plays an important role in practicing Kundalini yoga as conscious mind helps the practitioner to go into deep meditation. The Prana or energy flows through nadis and travels through the seven chakras, present in each one of us. It opens them and utilizes energy from every chakra and turns a person into a super natural being.
Hatha yoga is also practiced with Kundalini yoga as it helps maintain equal balance in left (Ida) and right (Pingla) parts of the body. Once the practitioner starts getting into deep meditation, it helps in his spiritual awakening and allowing him or her to enter into third dimension, which is beyond physical form of life. Its practitioner becomes a yogic master when prana present in him/her crosses all chakras as well as opens them, and finally reaches the crown of the head; thus, uniting with universal eternal energy or divine power. The tools of Kundalini yoga include Asana, Pranayama, Mudra, Bandha, Kriya, Meditation, and Keertans and Mantras. Two main books that teach about Kundalini yoga are 'Hatha Yoga Pradapika' and 'Vijayan Bhairava Tantra'.
There are many bad habits which we find in our personality but are unable to remove them by our will. Through yoga we can increase our will power and our strength, which inturn helps us to break the bad habits that we have. Kundalini yoga which has been gaining popularity is good to increase will power to help you to give up your bad habits. The techniques in Kundalini yoga which increases will power, is known as kriya or kundalini yoga kriya. The word 'Kriya' means cleaning or detoxification. This should not be confused with yoga kriyas, in which we clean our body through water, air or other techniques.
Kundalini yoga kriya involves simple body movement of breathing, along with chanting of mantra single or multiple times. Through this kind of kriya, all kinds of impurities from our energy channels can be cleaned up. To learn about this Kundalini yoga, visit our videos on our site and don't forget to press the 'like' button if you liked it.
