Powerful Ancient Yogic Breathing Technique for Awakening Your Kundalini Energy

HJ: I would like to offer these insights to those interested in awakening the kundalini energies in their body, as I have observed that there is much confusion and misunderstanding around this topic.  One can think of the chakras like gates.  They can be partially open, fully open or closed.  The kundalini energy is a powerful force that can only flow through fully open (sometimes partially open as well) chakras.  It will only rise as high as the most closed off chakra.

If you have not spent a considerable amount of time working on healing the self — both physical, mentally, and spiritually, the kundalini’s flow through the spinal cord will likely be impeded.  The amount of time I am referring to is different for each person.  For some people this may be years, for others it may be weeks.  It depends on the willingness and tenacity with which one approaches the healing process.

There are such things as partial awakenings of kundalini.  My first experience felt the energy rise to just below my heart chakra.  I still had inner work to do in healing spiritual issues related to the heart chakra and so that ‘gate’ was either partially or fully closed, thereby impeding the flow of the kundalini.  Nevertheless it was a powerful experience and it was easy to see how someone might mistake it for a full kundalini awakening, due to the fact that there is little in the way of guidance as to what this experience is actually like in our modern society.  Not to mention that everyones experience is highly individualized.  Basically, one needs to be very honest with themselves and where they are at in order to get a handle on what they are experiencing in terms of levels of awakening.

With that being said, the below exercise will ultimately prepare the body, mind and spirit on many levels for kundalini awakening.  It is a powerful ancient technique that when practiced with discipline and consistency will most definitely produce results in those individuals who are ready for the experience.

– Truth

Pranayama for Awakening Kundalini

Yoga Mag

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Kundalini is the latent shakti or spiritual energy in man. It is described as a serpent that is coiled three and a half times, face downwards, sleeping in mooladhara chakra, at the base of the spine. Until this kundalini awakens, no samadhi is possible. When it is awakened, kundalini hisses like a serpent beaten with a stick and enters the hole of sushumna, travels from chakra to chakra, and layer after layer of the mind opens up. Eventually this force of shakti is united with Shiva, seated on the sahasrara or thousand-petalled lotus, at the crown of the head.

The ultimate effect of pranayama is the udgata or awakening of the sleeping kundalini. The practice of kumbhaka in pranayama produces heat and thereby kundalini is awakened and passes upwards along the sushumna nadi. One must have knowledge of the nadis and chakras and be perfectly desireless and full of vairagya, non-attachment, before attempting to awaken kundalini by pranayama.

Nadis

Nadis are psychic tubes made up of psychic matter that carry pranic currents, visible to the psychic eyes only. They are not nerves. Only gross prana moves in the nerves, whereas the vital force or pranic current moves in the nadis. Above the genital organs and below the navel is the energy centre known as kanda, which has the shape of a bird’s egg. Arising from the kanda are 72,000 nadis. Of these, 72 are commonly known to yogis. Of those the chief are ten: ida, pingala, sushumna, gandhari, hastijihva, pusha, yashasvini, alambusa, kuhu and shankhini. Of these ida, pingala and sushumna are the important ones and sushumna is the most important of all.

Ida and pingala

On either side of the spinal column flow two pranic currents. The left one is called ida and the right one is known as pingala. These nadis are not the right and the left sympathetic cords, but the subtle currents that carry prana. The moon moves in the ida and the sun travels in pingala. The poison is of the sun and the nectar is of the moon. Ida is cooling and pingala is heating. Ida flows through the left nostril and pingala through the right nostril. Observation shows that generally the breath flows through the right nostril for one hour and then through the left nostril for one hour.

Sushumna

Sushumna is the most important of all the nadis. It is the sustainer of the universe and the path of salvation. When the breath operates through sushumna, rather than fluctuating between ida and pingala, as is the usual case, the mind becomes steady. This steadiness of mind is called the mindless state, the highest state in raja yoga. If you sit for meditation when sushumna is operating, you will have wonderful meditation. The real work of a yogi begins when sushumna begins to function. Yogis try their level best to make the prana, which is generally alternating between ida and pingala, move in the sushumna nadi instead.

Purification of the nadis

The prana cannot enter the nadis if they are full of impurities. Therefore, first of all, they should be purified and then pranayama should be practised. By regular practice of pranayama, the nerve centres and the nadis become purified and the prana easily forces its way up through the mouth of the sushumna. The nadis are purified by two processes: samanu and nirmanu. Nirmanu is done by physical cleansing or the shatkarmas. Samanu is done by a mental process with bija mantras or bijaksharas, seed sounds or seed letters, and is described below.

Samanu practice

1. Sit in padmasana. Meditate on ‘Yam’ the bijakshara of vayu, the air element which is the colour of smoke. Inhale through the left nostril while repeating the bijakshara 16 times. Retain the breath till you repeat the bijakshara 64 times. Then exhale through the right nostril very very slowly repeating the bijakshara 32 times.

2. The navel is the seat of agni tattwa, the fire element. Meditate on this agni tattwa. Then draw the breath in through the right nostril repeating 16 times the agni bijakshara ‘Ram’. Retain the breath, while repeating the bijakshara 64 times. Then exhale slowly through the left nostril repeating Ram mentally 32 times.

3. Fix the gaze at the tip of the nose. Inhale through the left nostril repeating the bija ‘Tham’ 16 times. Retain the breath while you repeat the bija Tham 64 times. Now imagine that the nectar that flows from the moon, runs through all the vessels of the body and purifies them. Then exhale slowly through right nostril while repeating the prithvi tattwa, earth element, bijakshara ‘Lam’ 32 times.

Moving kundalini through the chakras

Chakras are centres of spiritual energy. Wherever there is an interlacing of several nerves, arteries and veins, that centre is called a plexus. Similarly there are plexuses or centres of vital forces in the subtle nadis. These are called chakras. They are located in the astral or psychic body, but they have corresponding centres in the physical body also.

While the breath is retained, the prana is guided into sushumna at one of the three places where it yields space for entrance through contraction of the muscles of the neck, or the perineum, or through the navel. If the coiled-up energy of kundalini moves up along the sushumna nadi it must be taken up from chakra to chakra.

There are six important chakras. They are: mooladhara (containing four petals) related to the perineum; swadhishthana (6 petals) related to the genital organ; manipura (10 petals) at the navel; anahata (12 petals) at the heart; vishuddhi (16 petals) at the throat and ajna (2 petals) at the space between the two eyebrows. The seventh chakra is known as sahasrara, which contains one thousand petals. It is located at the top of the head. The sacral plexus tentatively corresponds to mooladhara chakra; the prostatic plexus to swadhishthana, the solar plexus to manipura, the cardiac plexus to anahata, the laryngal plexus to vishuddhi and the cavernous plexus to ajna chakra.

Kundalini pranayama

When you practise the following, concentrate on the mooladhara chakra at the base of the spinal column, which is triangular in form and which is the seat of the kundalini shakti.

Close the right nostril with your right thumb. Inhale through the left nostril while you count three Aums slowly. Imagine that you are drawing the prana in with the atmospheric air.

Then close the left nostril with your little and ring fingers of the right hand and retain the breath for 12 Aums. Send the current down the spinal column straight into the triangular lotus, the mooladhara chakra. Imagine that the nerve-current is striking against the lotus and awakening the kundalini.

Then slowly exhale through the right nostril counting six Aums.

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Repeat the process starting with an inhalation from the right nostril as stated above, using the same units, and having the same imagination and feeling.

This pranayama will awaken the kundalini quickly. Do it three times in the morning and three times in the evening. Increase the number and time gradually and cautiously according to your strength and capacity. In this pranayama, concentration on the mooladhara chakra is the important thing. Kundalini will be awakened quickly if the degree of concentration is intense and if the pranayama is practised regularly.

Kundalini pranayama with bhavana

In this pranayama, the bhavana, the feeling, is more important than the ratio between pooraka, kumbhaka and rechaka.

Sit in padmasana or siddhasana, facing the East or North. After mentally prostrating at the lotus feet of the sadguru and reciting stotras, hymns in praise of God and guru, commence this pranayama, which will easily lead to the awakening of the kundalini.

Inhale deeply, without making any sound. As you inhale, feel that the kundalini lying dormant in the mooladhara chakra is awakened and is going up from chakra to chakra. At the conclusion of pooraka, have the bhavana that the kundalini has reached sahasrara. The more vivid the visualization of chakra after chakra, the more rapid will be your progress in this sadhana.

Retain the breath for a short while. Repeat the pranava, the mantra ‘Aum’, or your ishta mantra. Concentrate on sahasrara. Feel that by the grace of Mother Kundalini, the darkness of ignorance enveloping your soul has been dispelled. Feel that your whole being is pervaded by light, power and wisdom.

Slowly exhale now. And, as you exhale, feel that the kundalini shakti is gradually descending from sahasrara, and from chakra to chakra, to the mooladhara.

Now begin the process again.

It is impossible to extol this wonderful pranayama adequately. It is the magic wand for attaining perfection very quickly. Even a few days of practice will convince you of its remarkable glory. Start from today, this very moment. May God bless you with joy, bliss and immortality.