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Hinduism - What Is The Kundalini?


 (“spiral”) One of the most essential principles in tantra is kundalini, or the latent spiritual force that lives in everyone.

It is the most important component of the subtle body, an alternative physiological system that is said to exist on a separate level than coarse matter yet has certain similarities with it.

The subtle body is made up of six psychic centers (chakras), which are represented as multi-petaled lotus flowers that run down the spine and are linked by three vertical channels.

Human capabilities, subtle components (tanmatras), and holy melodies are all represented by the chakras.

The deity Shiva (consciousness) and the goddess Shakti (power), the two divine principles through which the whole cosmos came into existence, have physical abodes above and below the chakras.

The homology (or likeness based on a shared origin) of macrocosm and microcosm, a key Hindu doctrine revealed in the Upanishads, is the basic premise underpinning this idea.

The kundalini is a manifestation of the universal Shakti that exists in all humans; it is shown as a snake wrapped three times around the muladhara chakra, the lowest of the mental centers.

Although everyone has kundalini, it is normally inactive, as symbolized by its coiled condition.

The goal of the subtle body's religious disciplines (yogas) is to awaken and uncoil the kundalini, pulling it up via the subtle body's core channel (sushumna) and piercing through the chakras on its journey.

The ascension of Kundalini indicates the reawakening of spiritual force.

To prevent the seeker from unwittingly activating unmanageable powers, this awakening must be carried out under the direction of a guru.

The piercing of each chakra is said to bring either the removal of barriers or the emergence of new abilities.

The kundalini rises to Shiva's microcosmic realm, the sahas radalapadma at the summit of the head, when completely expanded, to join with Shiva in eternal pleasure.

See Arthur Avalon's (Sir John Woodroffe's) Shakti and Shakta, 1978; Swami Agehananda Bharati's The Tantric Tradition, 1977; and Douglas Renfrew Brooks' The Secret of the Three Cities, 1990 for further details.


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