Que se enseña

Q. What is the significance of reading the stories glorifying the Satyanarayana Vratam at the end of the pooja? This somehow seems to be unique only for this pooja. Is it just meant for deepening the faith in the pooja?

A. Yes, the stories are for increasing the faith. They are also for some subtle messages. For example, you

can see that the stories cover a Brahman, a shoodra (wood-cutter), a vaishya (businessman named Sadhu) and a kshatriya (king names Tungadhwaja). The shoodra and vaishya learned the procedure and did it

themselves (instead of hiring a priest like people do these days). It means that anybody can do this ritual and do it by themselves, to the best of their ability.

The businessman tried to do business with god. Instead of performing the ritual with a desire in mind, he asked for his desire and took a vow that he will do the ritual IF a child is born. He asked god to first give a result. Even after he got a child, he postponed it saying he will do it at his daughter's marriage. He tried to haggle with god and extract the most. If you have a vaishya's temperament, you should guard against the tendency to do business with god.

The king was arrogant and egoistic. He ignored the ritual performed by cowboys because they were using clay idols and clay pots and he did not think much of them or their ritual. He did not bow to the god and rejected the prasad given by them. If you have a kshatriya's temperament, you should guard against the tendency towards arrogance, ego, pride and belittling of others.

Like this, there are some hidden messages that you can get by pondering on the stories.

Of course, when I mention the castes here, I do not necessarily mean the caste of birth. In the old days, people got their caste from father, but it became clear in time as their own temperament and aptitude developed. One interested in only knowledge is a braahmana. One interested in power, authority and control over others is a kshatriya. One interested in money and more money is a vaishya. One interested mainly in physical pleasures is a shoodra. One's caste is decided by one's attitude and aptitude. Valmiki was born as a shoodra, but became a braahmana later and also a maharshi. Vishwamitra was born as a kshatriya, but became a braahmana later and also a maharshi. In the old days, the concept of caste mobility was very much there and caste was not a rigid concept like today. What I said above regarding the weaknesses that people of different castes should try to overcome should be seen in that context and not from the context of a fixed caste based on birth in a family.

Kundalini

Whatever is one's path, Kundalini is not only awakened but goes to Sahasrara when one is established in undifferentiated Self. Even if one does not think in those terms, it still happens. It is incorrect to say that one can realize the highest truths without Kundalini awakened. A more accurate statement would be that one can realize the highest truths without engaging in any specific practices geared at awakening or raising Kundalini.

Some people following the so-called "Kundalini yoga" or other raja/hatha yoga paths specifically try to awaken Kundalini. However, such practices are not at all needed for awakening Kundalini. People belonging to various traditions and paths, not just limited to Hinduism, can experience Kundalini awakening, without knowing anything about the name or the symbolism. There are a lot of misconceptions about Kundalini.

Kundalini is essentially the force of one's self-awareness. Awakened and raised kundalini implies a more refined and higher self-awareness. At the lowest level, we bind ourselves to specific bodies and our self- awareness is limited to a body, a name and other things associated with the body and name. This experience of self as a body corresponds to Kundalini sleeping at Mooladhara. At the highest level, we are the undifferentiated Self, known as Brahman,that is all-pervading. This 'experience' of self

corresponds to Kundalini at Sahasrara. As self-awareness goes from the former to the latter, it may traverse through many stages in between. Correspondingly, many experiences are possible.

Kundalini rises as high as it can when it awakens for the first time, like a spring suppressed for a long time. However, it comes down again and the process of rise from then onwards will be slower, Kundalini will work its way up while the nadis are continuously cleaned (i.e. undesirable conditioning of mind is cleaned). When Kundalini rises high at the time of awakening, it may encounter impurities in nadis and yet rise high through the impurities. This may manifest physically as a powerful experience similar to heavy electricity flowing in the back.

There are thousands of nadis in the sookshma sareera. The exact path taken by Kundalini as it rises for the first time is not fixed. It may change from person to person, based on the impurities in various nadis. The exact "experience" will vary depending on the path traversed and the final point reached by self- awareness (kundalini), before withdrawal.

I actually know one person who had kundalini awakening, rise to Sahasrara and samadhi for 7 days, all happening at the same time. His nadis had already been purified. Once kundalini awakened, he directly went into samadhi, stayed there for 7 days and came back as a fully realized person. But it is a much longer journey for most.

Saying "this is what happens in a Kundalini awakening" is difficult. The exact experience changes from person to person, depending on the path traversed the final point reached by Kundalini. However, I can say one thing confidently: Once Kundalini truly awakens and rises, one will not have any confusion about what happened. But, until kundalini awakening occurs, one may confuse various other experiences (such as some movement of vayu in various nadis) for kundalini movement and wrongly think that kundalini is awakened.

Sensation like ants or worms crawling along the spine or in the head are NOTdue to kundalini awakening or rise. That can be due to a little vaayu flowing in various nadis. This can be a premonitory sign (but not a guarantee) of kundalini awakening. Same thing can be said about the sensation of tilting to one side (back or left or right) or the sensation of having completely fallen back (even though one is sitting normally in reality). There are several such premonitory signs.

As a reference, I can narrate the experience of ONE person. He was meditating with a Veda mantra every day. His guru had told him a few months earlier that his time for Kundalini awakening had come. However, he had absolutely no idea what kundalini was and was totally uninformed about nadis, chakras and kundalini. He did not engage in any specific raja/hatha yoga practices. All he did was to sit with his back erect and eyes closed and meditate with a veda mantra. In the weeks before kundalini awakening, he started experiencing various premonitory signs. He guru told him not to be distracted by them and to keep the focus on the mantra and try to forget everything else. When mind starts dwelling on an experience, it gets stuck there and cannot go higher.

When he was meditating oneday, his mind was perfectly and intensely focused on the mantra and other thoughts ceased momentarily. Suddenly he became aware of his body. It felt like there was a really tremendous explosion at the base of his spine. Then it felt like a huge amount of electric current was going up his spine from the base. Then it felt like he was not a body but a small point. Then it felt like he

was going up like a rocket at a tremendous speed. Then it felt like there was a tremendously bright white light and there was nothing else. It felt like he was not a small point in that light, but he was the light itself. There was an undescribable sense of peace and happiness. Suddenly, from nowhere, a thought came "what is this? What happened to my body? I have responsibilities still." Then he became aware of himself as a body sitting in pooja room. When he left pooja room and went out, he felt great love for everyone and happiness. For example, a serial was coming on TV and characters in the serial that he normally disliked for their shallow personalities suddenly felt like real people and he had great love and compassion for those TV serial characters (and other real people too). That state of love and compassion lasted a while and then he was normal.

This short experience was only the beginning of a journey. He experienced many things later on. These experiences were different from each other. As I said earlier, the experience varies based on the path traversed and the point reached by the self-awareness (kundalini). On various occasions, kundalini rose and he saw several sights and several beings within and heard several sounds, including veda mantras and beejaaksharas, again within.

He realized the transientness of a lot that we cling on to and the existence of something far higher and more permanent.

All this slowly started to change his attitude. His senses turned inwards and he critically started to analyze his own thoughts and motives and worked on correcting his attitude. The impact of what was happening around him, what others did and said started to make lesser and lesser impact on him. Luckily, he had a guru who put things in perspective and said that kundalini awakening was just a beginning and the real work was ahead. Depending on one's readiness, that real work can take many many years or even lives.

Kundalini awakening is only a beginning. It is not an end. Even the rise of kundalini to a chakra is not an end. In fact, a big percentage of people with awakened kundalini end up getting stuck at mooladhara itself. Very few make it to the next chakra or the one after, but end up getting stuck there. Very very few make it to higher chakras. And a very small minority actually realise self.

Complete overcoming of ego and sthita prajnataa described by Sri Krishna in BhagavadGita is the only real end goal of sadhana, whether you are into raja yoga or karma yoga or bhakti yoga or jnaana yoga. Thinking of a mystical experience can only distract one from this goal. I urge sadhakas, especially those who respect my advice, to forget about kundalini and chakras and just keep doing homam and japam (or whatever path they have chosen), keep purifying themselves with sadhana, keep working on their attitude and thought process and keep improving self-control. When (or as) mind becomes purified and one overcomes ego, whatever needs to happen with kundalini WILL happen automatically. Thinking of things in terms of kundalini and mystical experiences is a big deterrent rather than a boost, in one's spiritual sadhana. Instead of trying to manipulate kundalini, try to manipulate the way your mind works and perfect your self-control. Kundalini will automatically follow. One will do well to remember these words.