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KUNDALINI
THE TANTRIC CONCEPT |
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| The Kundalini
Sakti or ‘coiled feminine energy’ is the vast potential of psychic energy, the
body’s most powerful thermal current. The arousal of Kundalini is not unique to
tantric practice, but forms the basis of all yogic disciplines, and every
genuine spiritual experience may be considered a flowering of this
physio-nuclear energy. Even music and dance can arouse the Kundalini’s dormant
force and direct it to higher planes, until its perfect unfolding and our
conscious awareness of its presence within us is realized. |
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Tantras commonly mention six
principal holistically organized centres of consciousness, though the number
varies from text to text. Starting from the base of the spine these centres are
known as muladhara, Svadhisthana (around the prostatic plexus), Manipura
(around the navel), Anahata (near the heart), Visuddha (behind the throat), and
Ajna (between the eyebrows). Sahasrara the seventh transcendent chakra is
situated four-fingers’ breadth above the top of the head. The Sahasrara chakra
is said to be the region of Siva pure Consciousness, while the Muladhara chakra
is the seat of Sakti, whose form here is Kundalini. Through certain preescribed
disciplines the Kundalini Sakti rises through the psychic centres until it
reaches its full flowering – that is, fusion with the Absolute in Sahasrara as
Kula-kundalini, generating bliss-consciousness (ananda) from the union of
Siva-Sakti. |
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| Tantrikas regard
the human organism as a capsule of the whole. He who realizes the truth of the
body can then come to know the truth of the universe’ (Ratnasara). The adept
accepts this with an almost existential awareness. The psychic and physical
organisms are interdendent, since each makes the other possible. The forces
governing the cosmos on the macro-level govern the individual on the
micro-level. Life is one, and all its forms are interrelated in a vastly
complicated but inseparable whole. the underlying unity becomes a bridge
between the microcosm and the macrocosm. The human body, like the
electro-magnetic bodies of the sun of the earth, has with our present knowledge
expanded beyond its physical confines, revealing the subtle human faculties
beyond the five senses: the auras of the aetheric body, and its organs- the
‘chakras’ – of religious tradition the streams of ‘qi’ energy which the
acupuncturist traces – all of which emanations parallel and fuse with the
energy rhythms of our planet and beyond. |
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| The physical
sheath of the body, Annamaya is connected with three of the five
elements, earth water and fire- which are represented respectively in the
Muladhara, Svadhisthana and Manipura chakras. The Pranamaya sheath, bearing the
universal life-force, prana expresses itselt through the air and ether elements
which are represented in the Anahata and Visuddha chakras; the Manomaya and
Vijnanamaya sheaths have the Ajna chakra as their centre. It is the activation
of the Ajna chakra that gives the initiate inner vision, a simultaneous
knowledge of things as they really are, as the ‘third eye’ cosmic consciousness
opens at this centre. These subtle envelopes are related to the gross or
physical particles at several psychic points, and these points are interlinked
by numerous subtle channel known as nadis (from the Sanskrit root and meaning
motion, vibration). |
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| Though attempts
have been made to identify these subtle channels with the anatomay of the
physical body, they are practically untraceable by direct empirical
observation. If the nadis were to be revealed to the eye the body would appear
as a highly complex network. The most important of the nadis are the central
channel Sushumna and its two flanking channels: the white,’lunar’ nadi ida on
the left and the red ‘solar’ nadi, Pingala on the right the Sushumna nadi runs
from just below Muladhara, extending to the forehead through the spinal column.
Within the Sushumna nadi there are three more subtle channels: Vajra, Chitrini,
and Brahmani or Brahma-nadi the innermost, through which Kundalini moves
upwards. Two currents of psychic energy flow through ida and Pingala from the
perineum at the base of the spine spiral them between the eyebrows. Sushumna
remains closed at its lower end as long as Kundalini is not awakened. |
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