• This piece tells what is Kundalini, Types of Chakras and Granthis, breaking of Granthis, Awakening of Kundalini and Dimensions of Spiritual experience.

Any kind of movement or transformation (physical or mental) needs energy. Spiritual life involves several changes of mind or mental processes, which need spiritual energy.

In the 5th or 6th century CE, sages in India discovered a type of spiritual energy known as Kundalini. The idea of Kundalini was later developed by Matsyendranath and Gorakhnath in the 11th and 12th centuries. It was incorporated into the Tantras by the great Tantrik adepts of Kashmir and Bengal in the 9th and 16th cen-turies, or earlier.

This article was first published in the Prabuddha Bharata.

What is Kundalini?

It is difficult to say what Kundalini is. Neither the Upanishads nor the Bhagavadgita mentions it. Even Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras do not refer to Kundalini in any way. 

According to Swami Vivekananda, Kundalini is residual Psychic Prana. Prana is usually translated as Life Energy. This gives rise to the question, what is Life? Life is a strange involvement of consciousness in a self-regulating, self-evolving, dynamic equilibrium of forces known as Prana. Life consists of two factors: Prana (Universal Energy) and Chaitanya (Universal Awareness). The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad calls Prana satya (Truth) and Chaitanya satyasya satyam (Truth of truth). With the exception of Prashna, Aitareya, Brihadaranyaka and some minor Upanishads, the other Upanishads do not attempt to explain the relation between Prana and Consciousness. It was the Tantras, which arose probably in the 5th century CE or earlier which attempted to unify Prana and Chaitanya into a singular ultimate Reality known as chit-shakti or Para-Samvit and identified it with the Divine Mother of the Universe.

Swami Vivekananda, in the introduction to his book Raja Yoga, speaks of two kinds of Prana: Physical Prana and Psychic Prana. Kundalini according to him is the residual, spiritual aspect of Psychic Prana. A lot of Psychic Prana is wasted through restless activities, distracted thinking, emotions and sex. Psychic Prana is to be conserved through Brahmacharya. The Psychic energy thus conserved through Brahmacharya is to be taken up through the Ida (the left psychic channel) to the brain by the practice of intense thinking, prayer, meditation, etc. At the brain it gets transformed into ojas, comes down through the Pingala (the right psychic channel), and gets stored at Muladhara as Kundalini.

When sufficient Kundalini is stored, it has to be taken up through the central channel called Sushumna. The rise of the Kundalini in the Sushumna passes through several stages called chakras.

Chakras

The following points are to be noted about chakras:

1. There are in all six chakras.

2. All the chakras are in the Sushumna (central Nadi).

3. The six chakras are located at the following regions:

a. Muladhara—at the region between the reproductory organ and the anus.

b. Svadhishthana—at the next higher region.

c. Manipura—at the region of the navel.

d. Anahata—at the region of the heart.

e. Vishuddha—at the region of the throat.

f. Ajna—at the point between the two eyebrows.

4. Each chakra pertains to Jivatman, not to Para- matman. The Sahasrara, which is the abode of Par-amatman, is not regarded as a chakra. Hence, there are only six chakras.

5. Each chakra represents a particular state or level of awareness (chit), and psychic power (shakti or Prana). Thus, each chakra represents a particular level of chit-shakti.

6. Knowledge and power remain dormant in each chakra. A new type of knowledge and power manifest when each chakra is awakened.

7. Awakening of the chakra means awakening of the Jivatman (from the unconscious to the Self-conscious state). In ordinary life, Kundalini flows only through Ida and Pingala (left and right side channels); the Sushumna remains inactive or ‘closed at the bottom.’

8. Before awakening, Ida and Pingala form a loop around each chakra (as shown in the diagram above), like English number 8. After awakening, Ida and Pingala straighten up and appear like two bows.

Granthis

1. Apart from the chakras there are 3 granthis (knots) in the Sushumna. These are: (a) Brahma granthi (below the Manipura-chakra or navel centre). (b) Vishnu granthi (below the Anahata-chakra or heart centre). (c) Rudra granthi (below the Ajna-chakra or between the two eyebrows).

2. These granthis prevent the Kundalini from going up the Sushumna.

3. These knots are to be broken (pierced) through, one after the other, for the Kundalini to reach the Sahasrara. This process is known as granthi-bheda. It is a difficult process, and can be dangerous if attempted without sufficient purification of mind.

4. First of all, Brahma granthi (below Ma-nipura chakra) is to be broken. In some people this seems to happen spontaneously. According to Swamiji, such people stumble upon Kundalini. When Brahma granthi is broken, the person gains access to chittaka-sha (the ‘space of mind’). Such a person may become a great orator or writer or poet and may remain satisfied with psychic powers or worldly achievements.

5. Genuine spiritual seekers, however, do not allow themselves to be distracted like that; they continue to practise intense spiritual disciplines and, by the blessings of a Guru or by the grace of God, succeed in breaking the Vishnu granthi. This results in the first genuine spiritual awakening, the awakening of the Anahata chakra; the seeker realizes his true nature as pratyagatman or Inner Self. He gains access to chidakasha (the ‘Space of Consciousness’). As stated by Sri Ramakrishna, the Kundalini stays put at the Anahata chakra. It is difficult to go further up.

6. However, for the ‘realization of God’, or Ishwara or Brahman, as Infinite Consciousness and Shakti, the spiritual seeker has to break the Rudra granthi (below the Ajna-chakra). Very few people ever seem to succeed in doing that. Therefore, God-realization is extremely rare, although people talk much about it.

Awakening of the Kundalini

According to Swami Vivekananda, in ordinary thinking a very small quantity of Kundalini goes up through the side channels (ida and pingala) and strikes the brain. In Samadhi the whole Kundalini is taken up through the central channel (Sushumna) and strikes the brain resulting in super-sensuous illumination. To quote Swamiji’s words:

When a minute portion of energy travels along a nerve fibre and causes reaction from the centres, the perception is either a dream or imagination. But when by the power of long internal meditation, the vast mass of energy stored up travels along the Sushumna and strikes the centres, the reaction is tremendous, immensely superior to the reaction of dream or imagination, immensely more intense than the reaction of sense perception. And when it reaches the metropolis of all sensations, the brain, the whole brain, as it were, reacts and the result is the full blaze of illumination, the perception of the Self.

As this Kundalini force travels from centre to centre, layer after layer of the mind opens up and this universe is perceived by the Yogi in its fine or causal form. Then alone the causes of the universe, both as sensation and reaction, are known as they are, and hence comes all knowledge. The causes being known, the knowledge of the effect is sure to follow.1

After speaking about raising Kundalini through the Sushumna, Swami Vivekananda makes a tremendous statement which may not be acceptable to traditional Acharyas. Swamiji states: ‘Thus the rousing of the Kundalini is the one and only way to attaining Divine Wisdom, superconscious perception, realization of the Spirit. The rousing may come in various ways— through love for God, through the mercy of perfected sages, or through the power of the analytical will of the philosopher.’2

Many people may find it difficult to believe that the attainment of higher Jnana or Bhakti is the result of the awakening of the Kundalini, as stated by Swamiji. This is because they are under the impression that awakening of Kundalini is a turbulent process. Some people even imagine that the awakening of the Kundalini is like the wriggling up of a hissing snake. The famous pas- sage in Mundaka Upanishad (2.2.8) states:—the knot of the heart gets untied, and all doubts become solved.

Dimensions of Spiritual Experience

According to yogis, in ordinary people the Kundalini can move only up to the Manipura chakra. As a result, their minds are confined to interactions with the external world. A person transcends this worldly consciousness only when the Kundalini breaks the Vishnu granthi and reaches the heart centre. When the Kundalini reaches the heart centre, the seeker attains transcendental experience.

Transcendental experiences are of various kinds. The meditator may have visions of effulgent Deities or see the Inner Light as the light of the pratyagatman (individual Self) or hear the interior unbroken and uncreated sound known as anahata dhvani. These are only preliminary experiences. Further progress happens according to the unknown laws of the spiritual world.

The experiences of Jnana and Bhakti Margas are different from each other. So also, the transcendental experiences of Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Islamic mystics are different from one another. There are also false experiences and delusions. The guidance of a spiritually illumined Guru is a very essential help in spiritual life. However, to save oneself from false experiences and delusions, it is good to keep in mind the following points.

A genuine spiritual awakening or spiritual experience may be of any one of the following four types.

1. The most natural and indisputable spiritual experience is the awakening of the pratyagatman or individual Self. The person finds that his ego has been replaced by a higher Self. In Christian mysticism this kind of experience is called lumen sapientiae or Intellectual Light.

2. Development of one of the higher, spiritual faculties. Just as we need five senses to experience the external physical world, so also we need five higher, spiritual faculties to experience the transcendental spiritual world. These higher faculties are dhi, dhriti, medha, shraddha, smriti or dhruva-smriti (respectively, higher intuition, higher will, higher intellect, higher faith and higher memory). Transcendental experience can be the extraordinary development of any one of these higher faculties.

3. Visions of luminous gods, goddesses, mantras, or hearing of the unbroken, unstruck, spiritual sound known as anahata dhvani in the depths of the Heart.

4. The unconscious drifting through life is replaced by alert, conscious participation in Life.

We exist at three levels of experience: the unconscious, the conscious, and the Super-con- scious. Most of the people spend most of their waking time (jagrad-avastha) drifting through life under the control of the unconscious. They are seldom self-aware. The self they know of is the ego. The ego itself puts on several masks creating the illusion of several egos. Therefore, modern psychologists speak of ‘ego-system’ rather than of ‘ego’.

This state of drifting ends only when we undergo a spiritual awakening. This spiritual awakening leads one into super-sensuous state (atindriya). It is in this state that visions of gods and goddesses take place. The spiritual seeker is guided by a higher spiritual Self.

There is said to be a still higher state known as ‘Super-conscious’ state when the higher Self known as jivatman or pratyagatman, merges in the infinite Reality known as Brahman. This is the highest state of Advaita experience which only a few rare souls ever attain. The difference between the super-sensuous (atindriya) and the super-conscious (Advaita) is to be kept in mind. The real super-conscious state is when all sense of individuality, even the sense of a higher Self (jivatman) is lost and become one with Brahman.

Whatever may be the nature of the spiritual experiences, they all result in the irreversible transformation of the personality characterized by (1) purity, (2) egolessness and (3) readiness to serve others. Without this kind of irreversible change of character, spiritual experiences are of questionable authenticity.     

References

1. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 9 vols (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1–8, 1989; 9, 1997), 1.164–65; Raja Yoga, 59–60.

2. Ibid.

This article was first published in the February 2025 issue of Prabuddha Bharata, monthly journal of The Ramakrishna Order started by Swami Vivekananda in 1896. This article is courtesy and copyright Prabuddha Bharata. I have been reading the Prabuddha Bharata for years and found it enlightening. Cost is Rs 200/ for one year and Rs 570/ for three years. To subscribe https://advaitaashrama.org/pb-subscribe/