(“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.
You may also want to read more about Hinduism here.
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