Yogi Bhajan Lecture Archive
Lecture by :
Siri Singh Sahib Bhai Sahib Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogi Ji
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Lecture on: 01/01/1978
Category: Class Lectures
Location: Unknown
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Kundalini Yoga and Human Radiance

Tonight I would like you to ask any questions you like about Kundalini Yoga, its nature or history.

Question: I have a friend who is a psychotherapist. He teaches Hatha yoga as part of his therapy. He was telling me that Kundalini yoga is an extremely dangerous form of yoga and can possibly lead to insanity if not handled right. Is this true?
Answer: It is very unfortunate that some people talk that way. First of all, they do not know what they are talking about. Second, they don’t have any real experience of it. Actually, Kundalini yoga produces whole human beings, teachers, and yogis. A yogi is one who has a union with the supreme consciousness. Some people teach it as if it is a bunch of dumb exercises, but they have no right to call themselves yogis. If flexibility posture is the only yoga, then people in the circus are the best yogis.

Question: he doesn’t consider himself a yogi. He just mentioned that he had thought that Kundalini yoga is a very dangerous aspect of yoga.
Answer: Ask him why he is practicing all the Hatha yoga postures. What is the purpose of Hatha yoga? The purpose of Hatha yoga is to raise the awareness. It is a technology to bring the apana and prana, the moon and sun powers, together to raise the consciousness through the central equilibrium line. In other words, its stated aim is to raise the Kundalini. That is the purpose. But the problem is that it takes about 22 years to raise it that way even with perfect practice. That is the long method. It is a question of time only. Purpose is the same.

Teaching Hatha yoga and Kundalini yoga is very different. First of all, it is difficult to teach Kundalini yoga. A man who does not have a beam of energy within himself cannot teach it. That is the first fundamental. You have to be aware in consciousness. It is a matter of a level of consciousness. You should be at a certain steady level of consciousness to pull all the people up to that level. That is the real problem. You could come and I could give you a bunch of exercises. You would feel good, but when you talk about life and humanity and the total sum of existence and consciousness, then you have to feel that magnetism come out of me. If I can’t give you that, there is nothing to pull you to that level. That is the basic difference.

Let’s talk this way. Actually, there was a God. He uncoiled himself, opened himself up. This uncoiling process or manifestation process is known as Kundalini. What is dangerous about it? What is going to be uncoiled in you is already in you. It is an unlimited power and it is going to uncoil in you. There is danger when something outside is artificially put in you. But your system is already built to contain the energy of Kundalini. You simply are not utilizing that energy. If you start utilizing that energy, where is the danger? This talk of danger sometimes becomes the biggest danger and a big problem. All these yogis love me but they do not feel very good with me. They love me because, as a master of Kundalini yoga, it is very difficult to hate me. It takes a lot of strength to hate me. As a group we are a very powerful organization in the United States of America. We have a couple hundred thousand people. Name a large town, and there is a center nearby. The growth has all happened in three years. It is basically very difficult to put down somebody with that kind of following and that kind of personality. Where is the root of the distrust and warnings? Why is Kundalini yoga put down? It is done either out of ignorance or simply because I teach it! It has never been taught publicly before. The other yogis feel guarded about the knowledge out of a sense of national and racial loyalty. You understand that India was conquered by the British people who were Christians. So the lower classes and working classes of India were converted to Christianity. Traditionally, in India, this class of people is called untouchable. The majority of the Christians came from the untouchables, so even now in their minds and hearts a Christian is still untouchable. They feel this great sovereign secret of Kundalini yoga was supposed to be learned only by highly special Brahmins. Now this Yoga Bhajan got hold of it and he is just freaking out and giving it to every American without discrimination. It is very dangerous. It is dangerous culturally.

When I went back to India where I lived for thirty-nine years, the one question everybody asked was, “What are you doing? What do you want to do in that country? Why are you teaching them?” All my friends were upset about it. They were not happy. When I told them Americans have the potential to experience the infinity, they said, “Oh no, no, no. What has gone wrong with you?” When they started questioning me, I withdrew and said, “Alright, I am happy with my Guru, what do I care. It is my destiny.”

There are certain things in my life which I can’t overcome. They are in my destiny. I never came to this country by my own choice. I had no means to reach all these people who have come to know me. People have come to me. I have never even thought or intellectualized for a moment and said, “I did it.” What I feel is that those souls who have to come and learn from me are already in the body. I already have this knowledge which I am to share with them, so all I end up being is a postman to deliver their letters. When my mailbag is empty I can quit. That is how I feel.
What is Kundalini, actually? You experience it when the energy of the glandular system combines with the nervous system to create such a sensitivity that the totality of the brain receives signals and integrates them. Then a person understands the effect of the effect in a sequence of the causes. In other words, man becomes totally and wholly aware. We call it yoga of awareness. Just as all rivers end up in the ocean, all yogas end up raising the kundalini in man. What is the kundalini? It is the creative potential of the man. In one year, about one hundred and thirty-five thousand people have practiced Kundalini yoga and we have heard no complaints whatsoever.

Somebody may want to talk out of jealousy or ignorance, but we don’t have to answer to that. What is God consciousness? What is Christ consciousness? What you call Christ consciousness, we call Kundalini. When man uncoils his potential, in activity, that is what it is. When I started teaching Kundalini yoga, everybody told me, “It will not be popular, you should start with Hatha yoga.” I am a good Hatha yogi. When these Hatha yogis get sick, I treat them. I have a specialty in yoga therapy, where you use Hatha yoga postures and certain mudras and certain kriyas. But I chose not to teach just Hatha yoga. When I came to this country, I had to decide, “Am I going to do it for myself or am I going to do it for these people?” I felt that the people here needed the type of system which could give them a positive result in realization in a very short time. There is no better system known to me than Kundalini yoga. Raja yoga is very mental and a student has to be very prepared for it. The beauty of Kundalini yoga is that if you can just physically sit there with your pranayam automatically fixed, then with it, your mind is fixed. So a complete physical, mental and spiritual balance is achieved immediately in one kriya. That’s why it works so effectively in a short time. To achieve universal consciousness through any method you have to raise your kundalini.

To do this, a little technology and science is needed. After the eighth year of life, the pineal gland does not secrete fully. It needs to get the reserve energy that is stored at your belly-button area, the navel point. That energy which developed you and gave you this shape and brought you on this earth has absolutely no residue. It is a pure energy. Do you understand what I am saying? That pure energy is still there. All you have to do is uncoil that energy and make a functional connection with your pineal gland. Once that master gland, the seat of the soul, has started secreting, it will give you the power to reach your self-realization in relationship to the total universal awareness. Scientifically speaking, that is what must happen. But some people are still ignorant. If I would have talked a hundred years ago about atomic energy people would have said, “Oh, it is dangerous. It is impossible. Who wants to do that?” First of all they didn’t know about the atom. It is a human problem, not an individual problem. Without knowing anything about what something is or what something actually means, we have opinions. Not only do we have opinions, but we have set opinions!

Occasionally you will find an awareness which is unique in certain people who may not be practicing Kundalini yoga but are known as having a sixth sense. They have inborn capacities. They have some intuitive power which tells them that the consequences of certain sequences of actions will be disastrous in the end. If you have this intuitive relationship between the individual consciousness and universal consciousness, you can compute what someone is trying to say before they say it. What they actually say is unimportant. You will know what they intend and what they mean. It is not very difficult. If a man comes to you, you may not even let him talk. You just say, “Well, you have come and you are ultimately going to ask me for a hundred dollars, but friend, I don’t have it.” I used to do that sometimes but people started sending word that I am a great psychic. That is not a good reputation so now I am very quiet about it. This intuitive capacity is natural. Actually, you become sensitive to the auric radiance of another person. As the signal comes, all you have to do is compute it and you will know what he is talking about. His words do not mean anything. You already know what he means. Most people are not aware that they have this ability in them. But with a little mental work, it can be achieved.

Our life as it is today has one basic human problem. We have to understand: A is A, B is B, C is C. Because C doesn’t understand what C is, he cannot understand what B is and what A is. And that is the total conflict in this world and it is a source of unhappiness to the human being. If C understands what C is, in that understanding his relationship with B and A will be very clear, and there will be no place for doubt. Since C doesn’t understand what C is, C doesn’t understand what B is either, but he does want to express himself about B and A. This kind of expression which is not based on a clear understanding will always misguide. That is why this world has become a puzzle to us. Actually, the world is very clear. We are all human beings on this planet. We are supposed to live with each other in love, work as a worship, and follow the path of righteousness, guiding our lives through the time cycle of human energy to get across to infinity.

Why do we not fit in, in spite of the fact that we have the ability to fit in? There may be an ordinary man who is a grade B medical student. He gets a great opportunity. He rises above everything to the top. Then there may be a doctor who is a very brilliant student at college, but he never gets the opportunity. The confusion occurs when in spite of our equipped personality, we sometimes do not thrive and we do not understand why. There is a way to make sense out of this. We understand it intuitively, but scientifically it takes a little time.

According to the yogis, the symbol of man is the arc of life that we call an aura. The human aura is the arc of life. It is brilliant and white. Human existence depends on that arc. Most people can’t see it and can’t understand it. If you can see it, you can recognize the state of disease as well as the abilities of a person. All energy in existence has its own cycle just as this human being has its own cycle. That’s what makes a human being unique. Every magnetic field has to cross this magnetic field of your arc line. The strength of the magnetic field of your arc determines how the other magnetic fields can or cannot enter and affect you.

Now a question arises. If there is a positive opportunity or vibration, will this arc of light reflect it so it won’t enter? No! That positive energy will merge in it and will relate to the earth. If it is negative, it will be cancelled out at the arc line. Any person whose mental vibration results in a strong arc will protect all fragile areas of his life automatically with that arc.

When the magnetic field is strong, you relate to emotions differently. You can choose to relate to someone or disconnect from their influence. When your radiance is strong and you direct it to someone, they will want to talk to you and be around you in spite of great differences or pains. When man has the energy and he has the power through his psyche to relate or to forget, then he has nothing to worry about. The projection of his magnetic field will arrange the rays of his existence so that his psycho-electro-magnetic circle can organize all the surrounding magnetic fields in tune. In other words, the environment will operate in tune with his purpose.

Let me say this in spiritual language. When the divine source that prevails through the man projects the light of God, all darkness will go away. Wherever he shall go, there shall be light, beauty, bounty and fulfillment. These two explanations are the same, but one is in mystic language and the other is in scientific language. Kundalini yoga is the science of changing and strengthening the radiance to give expanded life and capacity.

I’ll give you an example of understanding human behavior with these two languages. Whenever the individual consciousness, while radiating, feels a cut or dip in the area of radiance, the connection that is trying to be made is not complete. When there is a cut, you cannot radiate correctly and the cycle of energy cannot complete itself into a creative action. What is a cut? A cut is a division of energy.

Question: Well, what would cause a cut like this?
Answer: I am coming to that. We all have set patterns of behavior on which the pattern of consciousness is based. These patterns hold our personalities. A Hindu, for example, cannot eat red meat because in his consciousness he feels it is a sin. A Muslim cannot eat pork because in his consciousness he feels it is a sin. A Christian eats meat and pork, because in his consciousness it is not a sin. Your consciousness must form a pattern of flow. Once you fix the pattern and frequency of that flow, then any time that your needs conflict with that established pattern, you cannot radiate. That’s why some people cannot look into your eyes and talk, and others don’t like to face you. What is wrong? Nothing, but a pattern of flow has been set. It is a combination of social environment and inner environment that forms the patterns. Those patterns form cavities in the aura. A cavity in consciousness is a duality. We act but we know that we don’t think about it. Whenever your intellect, the giver of the thoughts, does not correspond to your set behavior, you have a problem.

In a church, we would say that this is the conflict of a sinful man. What happens when you go and confess to a minister? What does he give you? Does he have some key to bind you up? You pour yourself out and he tells you that you are forgiven. You have a set pattern of belief in him; therefore, you can believe him and you can go on. Whenever something bothers you, there is only one way to get out of it. You have to have a captain, you have to have a person who will not betray your faith and who will counsel you to return to the path of righteousness. In other words, he should set the flow of the psyche in tune with the surrounding magnetic field. In mystic or spiritual language, we say that a man who has committed a sin comes and confesses in the house of the Lord and the Lord accepts his prayers and blesses him to the light. He again starts living in a bountiful world. The two explanations are exactly the same. In this modern world, when there is a problem, people go to the psychiatrist who drinks coffee and has the patience to listen to them and to make them talk. Then through his experience he tells them that they have to work out the whole thing, cautiously. By charging a couple of thousand dollars, the psychiatrist makes the guy alert to the idea that he has to stop somewhere and solve his own problem. He has to put in an effort. This is what motivates him. It is not the psychiatrist; it is not the priest in the church. It is your acceptance of the environmental behaviors and the urge to look back to your basic origin and start understanding that you are the creative source and nucleus of the whole vibratory effect in which you live. The moment you understand this, you are alright, there’s no problem. The moment you know who you are, the problem is solved. When you understand who and what you are, your radiance projects in the universal radiance and everything becomes creative around you. This confirmed relationship of responsiveness in consciousness between the finite self and the infinite self is the gift of Kundalini.

What is the problem that arises between a father and son? Is there any father who wants to denounce his son? No. If he does denounce him, what forces him to? Some action of the son. If a father wants to accept his son, what makes his son the most acceptable? Action. But action at what level? The action must be at the father’s level of consciousness. If the father is a hunter and fisherman, and the son goes and fishes and brings home a lot of fishes, the father says, “Oh my, I’m impressed!” Suppose instead the son used to go for eight hours and get two fishes. If he starts telling his father, “Fishing is no good. It is just killing the life in the ocean for no reason. Don’t do it. You can’t even create one fish but destroy as many as you can hook. How can you kill all those poor beautiful things in the ocean?” The father will get angry and say, “Okay. You get off my back and hit the road. Eat your own bread. Get out of my house and keep going. I don’t want to listen to you.” He will react this way because he can’t understand the son’s point of view.

What is our understanding? It’s our pattern of behavior. What is a pattern of behavior? It is the rate of frequency and the radiance of the psyche and the magnetic field in relationship to the universal psyche and magnetic force. If you can relate with that universal radiation so the beam and frequency of projection is clean, then you have communicated with the universe and it will support you just as a happy father will support his son, his creation. This relationship of consciousness to the infinite consciousness is the one fundamental requirement of life and the aim of yoga.

There once was a businessman who wanted to find a man to manage his stores. He advertised. Everybody came with great experience and recommendations. The last interview was with a man who had no experience. The businessman said, “Why don’t you have any recommendations?” He said, “Sir, if you want to recruit someone with a recommendation, you have already interviewed many. Just select one. But if you ever need a man, remember me and do call me. Thank you very much.” He left smiling. The businessman started thinking. Is a manager a man or is a man a manager? He sat on this problem for one week and finally came to a conclusion. A perfect manager may not be a man in the sense of activity. He discussed it with one of his friends. His friend said, “What are you talking about? That man just said I am a man, and you started believing him. What about his recommendations? These other people have already worked as managers of stores.” The owner said, “They are managers of stores, but none of them could tell me that he is a man. I’d like to try this man.” So he called him. He said, “Alright. You manage my store.” The man said, “Sir, I have a problem. It is true I am a man. If you make a manager out of me then I’ll manage the stores. My problem is that I am only a man, I am not yet a manager.” The businessman asked, “How can I train you in all those skills?” The man replied, “It is nothing. If you will just work for fifteen days as a manager, I will watch you and I will know.” So the owner worked for fifteen days and this guy picked up everything. He was perfect. Sometime later they were sitting together and the owner asked, “I would like to understand something. How can you have all my confidence so that I trust you to do everything perfectly? You are not a very qualified man. Your only training was seeing me work for fifteen days.” The new manager said, “Sir, one thing you must understand. I know only one thing: ‘I am, I am.’ My consciousness is very clear about the words ‘I am, I am!’ When anything bothers me, I tell myself one thing: ‘I am, I am,’ and I get to it. The moment you know you are you, there is no problem.”

The basic unit of you is equal to your radiance plus your activity. That radiance is the mind and the activity is the gross. Let me express this in the mystic sense. When the soul opens up the heart, man becomes divine. You may say it any way you like. A man has to understand his existence in relationship to the universe. Whosoever understands this knows the truth. The whole world around you will be beautiful if you understand that you are you. I all walks of your life remember you are you. “I am, I am.” That is the mantra. The Kundalini and Kundalini yoga are very natural elements that rapidly make you what you already are and bring you to the practical experience of infinity.
© YB Teachings, LLC 1978
Above Article Copyright © Yogi Bhajan 2002. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.



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