Kundalini – an impersonal force

Kundalini is universal energy and is, therefore, not something which lies
within the domain of the personal, individual ego. It is the uniting,
creative force out of which all individuality came into existence. Just as
in the physical body there is one force which permeates all the cells and
unites them into a cohesive, integrated whole called the body, so Kundalini
unites every planet, star and galaxy in the universe. It is an impersonal
force, which is not conditioned or subject to the barriers or limits of
society, culture, race, creed, religion or philosophy. It will continue when
all philosophy has vanished and all intellectual speculation and writing has
ceased.

Carl Jung, the well-known Swiss psychiatrist, referring to Kundalini as an
impersonal force, states that if we claim it as our own creation we do so at
our own peril. The price is ego inflation, false superiority, obnoxiousness,
or madness. Kundalini is an autonomous process which arises out of the
unconscious and uses us as a vehicle. Kundalini has created us and awakens
us; we do not awaken her.

Ramakrishna told his disciples: “There are five kinds of Samadhi……one
feels the sensation of the spiritual current (Kundalini) to be like the
movement of an ant, a fish, a monkey, a bird, or a serpent. Sometimes the
spiritual current rises through the spine, crawling like an ant. Sometimes,
in Samadhi, the soul swirls joyfully in the ocean of divine ecstasy, like a
fish. Sometimes, when I lie down on my side, I feel the spiritual current
pushing me like a monkey and playing with me joyfully. I remain still. That
current, like a monkey, suddenly with one jump reaches the sahasrara. That
is why you see me jump up with a start. Sometimes, again, the spiritual
current rises like a bird hopping from one branch to another. The place
where it rests feels like fire……Sometimes the spiritual current moves up
like a snake. Going in a zigzag way, at last it reaches the head and I go
into Samadhi. A man’s spiritual consciousness is not awakened unless his
Kundalini is aroused.”

The spiritual consciousness which Ramakrishna and all the great saints,
mystics and sages from all traditions, times and countries have spoken about
is also called Samadhi, nirvana, God-consciousness, and so on. It is a vast
consciousness which requires enormous amounts of energy to initiate or
trigger and sustain. This energy is far beyond anything that we as
individuals can handle, let alone understand.

The whole aim of spiritual experience is the absorption of the individual
into the unitive life, higher awareness in which we identify with our true
nature, Shiva, pure consciousness. It is as though this mortal body and
limited mind is but an egg or seed from which we attain rebirth into a
progressively higher and greater existence. Kundalini is the process of
germination of this seed or cracking the shell of our individuality so that
we merge, consciously, with the source of all existence. As such, Kundalini
does not belong to one person, one time, or one culture. It is a universal
phenomenon.

Kundalini – a universal occurrence

The very fact that similar phenomena, philosophies and concepts are reported
in geographically and temporally isolated areas and cases implies the
existence of Kundalini, or some similar phenomenon, as the factor
responsible for heightened consciousness, ecstasy, bliss and higher
knowledge in all cultures and at all times throughout history.

Gopi Krishna comments, “This mechanism, known as Kundalini, is the real
cause of all genuine spiritual and psychic phenomena, the biological basis
of evolution and development of personality, the secret origin of all
esoteric and occult doctrines, the master key to the unsolved mystery of
creation, the inexhaustible source of philosophy, art and science, and the
fountainhead of all religions, past, present and future.”

Kundalini is a universal phenomena locked into the genetic structure of the
DNA helix (which greatly resembles the Ida-Pingala helix) and deep within
the shared archetypes of the unconscious mind where the most primitive,
powerful and awesome energies, forces, instincts, urges and drives of homo
sapiens are found. These forces impel us and give our lives the necessary
momentum.

All human beings are subject to the same basic life force that makes the
cells of the body grow and reproduce, that ensures the breath and heartbeat
continue unabated. We cannot stop acting and reacting while we are alive and
the motivating, driving force which propels us, the mainspring hidden deep
within the tissues of the body, whose impulse motivates the cellular
mechanisms and animates and causes us to think, speak and act, is Shakti,
energy. But this energy is just a drop of Kundalini Shakti.

Imagine that we can peer deep into the nucleus of a cell, and deeper still
into the genetic material of the nucleus, and then even deeper into the
atoms and molecules which are linked by cohesive forces and inter-atomic
tensions which have electric and magnetic properties, and then deeper still
into the immense, stupendous forces inside the atom ( which when unleashed
can destroy cities and are some of the most powerful forces we know of
today). Then we would start to approach the abode of Kundalini. Hence, the
meaning of Kundalini is, ‘that which abides in a coiled or potential form in
a deeper place’.

Actually, Kundalini resides even deeper than the intra-atomic level, for she
is the basis of all matter (which is merely a grosser vibration of energy),
and energy (which is a subtler vibration of matter). She is Maha Prana
Shakti, the creative force in the universe, the thermonuclear reaction
within the sun, the awesome forces of the black hole which magnetises and
traps light, and she is the limitless expanse and darkness of infinite space
stretching out beyond the mind’s capacity to grasp.

By Dr. Swami Shankardevananda Saraswati