The Kundalini

Wisdom Teachings
Inner Realities

The ancient researchers of the subtle worlds describe that there is an energy coming out from the background of existence, which is the cause of the movement of life. It forms the units of consciousness, which work out their evolution through the mineral, plant and animal kingdom and which have already developed half of the human consciousness. Therefore it is symbolically represented by a serpent coiled three and a half times and called Kundalini. The three and a half coils comprise the physical, astral and part of the mental planes of our existence, which have already been worked out by the material evolution. Today we mostly understand by Kundalini only the energy, which is dormant like a coiled serpent at our base centre. In the original sense, however, Kundalini is nothing but the inner power of nature, which cyclically moves through all planes of existence in a spiral way.

Its descending movement is described as the serpent creeping down from the tree of life and making man live in the lower centres, deeply buried in matter. On the path of ascent the individual Kundalini liberates itself from the bondage of dense matter, just like a serpent slips off its old coat. It ascends as a winged serpent in order to finally reunite with the planetary, solar and cosmic Kundalini. Then through this channel of Kundalini the energy flows from the origin down to us.

In man the path of Kundalini goes from the base to the head centre. With the earth it is the axis of rotation connecting the North and the South Pole. The greater axis for the visible space globe is identified with the astrological sign of Draco. It is visualised as the Kundalini of the spine of that great being inhabiting our space globe. The underlying truth is that the gigantic span of this space globe is a coiled principle eternally unwinding and manifesting in the course of eons in different forms. It is said of this serpent that it lives on the surface of the great milk ocean, the milky way, an immeasurable spiral-shaped ocean of sun globes in different states of development. The eastern wisdom depicts that on the background of the great ocean of eternity the waves of creation eternally emerge and that on the coiled serpent of time the Lord of Permeation (Vishnu) is resting in blue colour in the heart of Mother Nature.

The word Kundalini describes a winding movement. It means an expansion of consciousness through many planes of awareness. The Kundalini cannot be located physically, no more than the energy vortexes in the system of the spine called chakras. You cannot screen it by x-ray photos or see it by a surgical opening of the spinal column. Materialistic science therefore cannot understand it, but it is unscientific to deny its existence. We also cannot locate will, mind or understanding in the physical body, but have to get to know them through their functions.

There are many methods in the East aiming at awakening the Kundalini power resting in half-subjective sleep. Different yoga schools try it with asanas, breathing techniques, mantras or even herbs and drugs. This cannot generally be recommended. There are many who stimulate the Kundalini fire too early and thus get into psychic problems. This is harming to their health, not only on the physical, but also on the emotional and mental plane. To think of one’s own Kundalini and sit for hours in meditation doesn’t move the Kundalini upwards. For egoists the awakening is not possible.

The Kundalini rises by itself when we proceed in the right manner. The attitude towards life should be to help as much as you can. When we have the deep intention to help, the streams rise upwards and come up to the ajna centre. Especially group work on the soul plane makes it possible to awaken the individual Kundalini and to stimulate the chakras.

As long as we don’t follow certain rules in life, the fire of the Kundalini cannot be stimulated. The base centre is like a lotus with four petals which regulates the physical matter of our body and which is guarded by the serpent of Kundalini. If a petal of the lotus hasn’t yet opened, we cannot open it with brute force. It opens itself, when we allow enough light to pour in. This means, by correcting our behavioural patterns with the light of consciousness, the matter of our body reorganises and slowly becomes more subtle. The base centre corresponds to the activity of the seventh ray. So we have to work with the seventh ray in order to overcome the shackles of the energy in the base centre. This means rhythm and order in life. When we organise our lives according to a rhythm relating to work, food and sleep, the body matter gets purified in the inner fire. In the Vedic wisdom this process is supported by uttering the Holy Word, by uniting the mind with the utterance and by absorbing it through the process of breathing into the heart and thus into the “I AM”.

Raising the Kundalini fire is a process which is compared in the eastern scriptures with the twirling of a stick, by which fire is generated through friction. It is said that the entire creation comes about through this fire of twirling. The twirling is done with the energies seemingly moving into opposite directions, of light and darkness, of day and night, or of spirit and matter. The left energy directed downwards into matter is called Ida, the right energy leading upwards is called Pingala. The Sushumna is the balancing principle between the two, the equilibrium of our existence. It works through the narrow middle duct of our vertebral column. Ida vibrates along the lift side and Pingala along the right side of the spine. When the column is filled with the fire of Kundalini and brims over, the fire streams out via the head. We can visualise this as a shining ball on a rod. The rod is the rod of initiation or also Moses’ rod, which, when thrown to the ground, became a creeping serpent. The ball is also depicted with wings and thus symbolises the divine winged serpent, the Kundalini risen to the ajna centre. In certain rituals the head of a serpent as a head ornament belonged to the insignia of the Egyptian high priests. The rising vital force of the Kundalini has a healing effect, and thus the rod of Aesculapius with the rising serpent is the symbol of the doctors to date.

The activity of the Kundalini in the vertebral column is a very pleasant sensation. At first we have the feeling that something is coming and going in the spine. Then we feel how something opens itself and leads us into the inner chambers. Since our heart and our spine contain the essence of our self, we feel this activity as our self. Later on it is not a sensation, but the experience of the direct Presence. All is only the experience of the Presence in different gradations.

Today the Masters are trying to connect the Kundalini of the human being with the Earth Kundalini so that man develops faster. For this Master CVV has carried out experiments in order to reach the Kundalini of the earth with the help of his Kundalini and later get to the Kundalini of the other planets, of the solar system and of the cosmic system. Through the energy which had visited him he accomplished an outstanding achievement. He built a bridge, in order to receive the life principle from the Most High, so that an electric current can pour down from the cosmic centre via the planetary centre to man. It is a fresh flow to see that we are revived, refined and re-aligned. The entire life on earth gets faster transformed in order to attain more awareness.

Master CVV kept on examining all contacts which he had gained and in doing so frequently left his body through the thread of the Kundalini. Often people thought that he had died, but he wasn’t dead. Eighteen times he showed that he could leave and re-enter the body at will. The individual Kundalini of those who have submitted themselves to the Master becomes one with the Kundalini power in the surrounding space and pulsates together with the Earth Kundalini. For transmitting this energy he gave as a watchword the yogic letters “C.V.V.”. He called this Kundalini power “intelligent electricity” and said about it: “It is the simultaneous co-existence of all planes.”

References: K.P. Kumar: Sri Dattatreya / notes from seminars – E. Krishnamacharya: Master CVV. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India.